Christmas
Let me be really honest and vulnerable here, I know most people are really into Christmas but I am the Christmas Grinch.
I dislike almost everything about Christmas, in ways that are too numerous to go into here. One small example that I am “grinchy” about is Christmas lights.
I hate Christmas lights, I am convinced:
They are a waste of power
They are made by slave labour
That half of them end up in landfill each year
They contribute to our consumer culture of waste
The spiritual aspect is magnificent though;
On a spiritual level I am in love with what Christmas actually represents. While so often we have reduced it down to a consumerist excessive time of spending on a spiritual level Christmas is awe-inspiring.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus – these words are so often repeated that they have little meaning anymore.
So let me put it this way;
We celebrate and remember that the Lord God of heaven incarnated as a fragile human being.
He came down and lived a human life so he could identify with every suffering and trial we go through. He revealed God to us and also let us know that in heaven was someone who understood our suffering and struggles on this planet.
He became Immanuel – God WITH US.
As John chapter 1 verse 14 puts it “The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory….. full of grace and truth”.
It was only in his incarnation, when he lived and died among us, on earth that we really could see his glory in our world, and it was indeed full of grace and truth.
That is the Christmas I like.
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