Christmas?

This morning I had a surprise about the middle of the church service when it was announced that I was going to play some special music for the Christmas service! Evidently someone had failed to mention to me that fact far enough in advance for me to pick out what special music I was going to be doing. I tried walking up to the front real slow while madly thinking "What Christmas songs do I know?" I have never celebrated Christmas in my life so the normal Christmas music procedure is kind of foreign to me. About the time I pulled the piano bench out I decided to do what I wanted instead of what they were expecting, so I mentioned a few of my thoughts regarding Christmas, not much as I am sure that would have caused a riot, or at least a stunned silence for a few minutes. What I find amazing is that people concentrate on the birth of Christ, the warm and fuzzy parts like the manger, the hay and the nice little animals, a tree in the corner with it's beautiful array of colored electric lights, and the shepherds on the hill, without considering the real reason He came; it wasn't to be born, it was to die. Of course they like the lights and the tree so much they don't even consider what it really means and where those traditions originated. I wrote an article a few years ago detailing all of that but I can't find it, and since I am too lazy to rewrite another one I'll just suggest you visit Carol MacDonald's blog where she has posted a good article on the subject www.caroljoy.blogspot.com I really hope she doesn't mind me mentioning it.
We need to realize who Jesus really IS, not was. We need to concentrate on what He does for us and what we can do to follow Him. I really don't think stressing ourselves out over giving everyone a bunch of presents does anything to further the Kingdom of God do you? About the only things I can see it accomplishing is adding to the debt load of the average person and filling the bank accounts of the merchants. Got to keep the economy going right?
I love Christmas music. But we only hear it for the month of December and then forget about it for the rest of the year! what is wrong with using it all year long? Who says Christ was born on December 25th? I know the sun god was supposed to be born on that day so it is rather suspicious when people try to give that birthday to the Son of God! If you look for it you may find more evidence that Jesus was born more towards August or September but I don't really worry too much about that either! If He had wanted us to remember and celebrate His birthday don't you think He would have told us exactly when and how to do it? He told us very specifically other things that He wanted us to do so why would He have left the birthday out if He meant for us to observe it? He mentions how we are to remember His life and death at the last supper when He said "Do this in rememberance of me."
Actually, I see nothing good about birthdays in the Bible. There are two birthdays that I can think of right off the top of my head and in both cases men were put to death! (Pharaoh and Herod's birthdays). I'll leave it up to you whether you want to do more searching on the subject or not, as for me, I'll concentrate on what Jesus did for me and what He does for me every day!
When I was speaking at church I mentioned how I wanted to focus on how marvelous it really was to realize that He came, lived, was tortured and died, and the best of all, rose again: All so that I could gain His life in me. This is why He came and Lives. So we can have His life in us.
The song I chose is a very special one to me, I learned to play it the day of mom's funeral and Kyle and I played it as a duet on two pianos while everyone was eating. We missed out on the food but I wasn't too hungry that day anyway. "And can it be that I should gain, an interest in my saviors blood! Died He for me who caused His pain, and bled for Adam's helpless race..." "Amazing Love, how can it be? That thou my God shouldst die for me? I like to change the chorus on the last time around to "Amazing love, how can it be? That thou my God should Rise for me! and then singing it again one last time, "That thou my God should Live for me!