Cramming Christ In Christmas

I was watching a bit of Canada AM last Wednesday morning and they had a feature on Children’s books for Christmas. They talked on about a whole bunch of different books. The Grinch is most definitely a favourite but there were others like the Polar Express and a few I had never heard of.

Then, at the very end of the feature, the lady who was the guest and who had brought the various books in to show, in what almost sounded like an afterthought, says, “And then of course there is the traditional Christmas story”, as she holds up a book with the Nativity scene on the cover.

To this, Beverly Thompson, the host of the show says, “Yes, how do you cram that story in with all of the others.”

And there it was! I know she never paused to choose her words thoughtfully. She just kind of blurted it out. And maybe that’s why she spoke the unabashed truth so unashamedly. Is our present culture keeping Christ in Christmas? You bet we are! Yep, He is there alright. No doubt about it. No, He’s not obvious at all, mixed in like an onion in a jar of olives, but He’s got to be there somewhere. You shouldn’t expect Him to be easy to spot behind all of that stuff. You’ll have to look pretty hard to see past the big fat Santa and fight off the distraction of flying reindeer and dancing sugar plums but if you look hard enough, you might just see Him because He most definitely has a place. We’re not always sure where that place is but you might want to check to see if He is sitting on a shelf somewhere perhaps, because He most definitely has a place and we’re determined to keep Him in it.

Good grief, I even saw a comment posted on Facebook by someone who was saying how Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Santa. Yep, Christ is there, somewhere, but most of our children growing up will never notice Him. I hope we will do our part to make sure that some really do.