Christmas Bells #1………why we celebrate Christmas!

Many Christians chose to have nothing to do with Christmas! They recognize Jesus as the Son of God alright, and believe in him as their Lord and Messiah but, they do not consider Christmas a festival worthy of celebration! As part of this series we shall look at the arguments for and against Christmas and explore the deeper spiritual implications of the festival!
Their main arguments against Christmas can be summarized as follows:
1. Jesus did not institute Christmas; neither did he nor, his disciples celebrate it! He rather urged his followers to commemorate his death; also, nowhere is Christmas mentioned in the Bible!
2. Christmas has heathen origins; it is merely a recycled pagan festival! Whoever celebrates Christmas, is practicing idolatry and paganism!
3. There are no accurate records of the actual year and date of Christ’s birth. With copious scholarly details, it is argued that Christ could not have been born in December! So, why observe/celebrate an event you are not sure of when it occurred?
4. Modern day non-Christians have hijacked Christmas and turned it into an annual secular revelry and Holiday season. The popularity and excitement attached to Christmas do not result from pure Christian principles and traditions but, from mundane pleasure seeking and commercialism.
These are some of the weighty reasons that have been put forward by the said Christians, that Christmas is unscriptural! Ironically, these are about the same reasons most non-Christian religionists hold against Christmas as well!
All the same, let us reflect on what Christmas is, what happened on Christmas day and why it is regarded as a sublime spiritual festival by many people!
To start with, what is Christmas? In all simplicity, it is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ! Who was Jesus? Outwardly, a Jewish spiritual teacher from Galilee who was later gruesomely crucified through the contrivance and intrigues of a displeased religious priesthood and the orders of Pontius Pilate, a Roman prefect!
Inwardly, Jesus was an Envoy and a part of the Divine unsubstantiate essence called God! Thus, he was rightly called the Son of God, in contradistinction from the average human being who is but a precipitation out of the radiations of God!
Do not gloss over this distinction because it contains profound wisdom! In it lies the difference between an Envoy and others! In it lies the difference between the God-man and the Spirit-man!
The outer Christ was the physical body and cloak that was crucified while the inner Christ was not, and cannot be touched by whips, nails, chisels and hammers!
And now to the birth of Christ! It is often said that when true nobles are born, the heavens tremble and the skies announce their arrival! In the case of Jesus, there was a joyous commotion in the Universe: Angels and other heavenly beings accompanied the Divine Essence down and formed a Light rampart around the child. The ethereal eyes of shepherds, who were out in the field and attuned to nature, opened briefly and they were permitted to see the upheaval in the Universe; they froze with fright at the magnificence of the happening! An angel had to reassure them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people.”(Luke 2: 10).
As a fulfillment of Divine prophesies and greetings from the Father, the Star of Bethlehem stood radiantly above a stable where the child was born. The whole of Creation rejoiced with the earth for receiving the Love of God! It was a moment of sacred consummation! Hence, it is called the Holy Night!
These were real events, not fairy tales!
Anyone who has some considerable knowledge of spiritual life, knows that, no thought volition, word, or, deed is lost in Creation! They live on in what some call the Book of Life, Book of Jubilees, Hall of Records, Akashic Records, etc. This is very true of epochal events like the birth of Jesus! Even now, about 2000 years after, gifted ones are still permitted to see and experience the events of the Holy Night and have confirmed that the Grace is ever available for all (Christians and non-Christians alike) to draw strength from!
The Holy Night is therefore, a living phenomenon! It is firmly and eternally established in Creation: the non-physical components of the Star of Bethlehem still radiate in love, the angels and other beings that took part in the events still rejoice and stand in gratitude to God Who, from time to time, gives His Grace to all who honor the advent of His begotten Son!
Above all, Jesus is alive! Not as an itinerant preacher with a rag-tag collection of disciples but, in unspeakable splendor, as the eternal mediator and Prince of the Throne of Grace!
Christmas is therefore celebrated as an expression of true gratitude for God’s incomprehensible Grace, which He gives ever again to the earth with the Holy Night and, as a solemn pledge to heed the words of Jesus and live according to the Will of God!

 

 

Photo Credit: en.wikipedia.org