I know what you are thinking "Why does this dude hate Christmas?" Now don't get me wrong. I love the season of Christmas and the Christian background to Christmas. Christmas in the Christian perspective is to celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was born in a manger to the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth. Shortly after the birth of the Lord, three wise men came to visit Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and presented them with gifts. Each of the three gifts has a hidden meaning behind it.
The gift of gold is meant to symbolize the kingship of Jesus.
God is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Because Jesus is fully God and is God's begotten son, he shares in His divinely royal lineage. Jesus is special because He is the only begotten son of God. No other person is fully God. Now don't think that because we are not fully God like Jesus was and that we have sinful bodies, that God doesn't love us like He loved Jesus. God still loves us, even though we are sinners in sinful bodies. We are also God's sons and daughters.
The gift of myrrh is to symbolize the mortality of Jesus.
Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph as a human and a spiritual deity. In other words, Jesus was fully man and fully God. Myrrh was typically used as an embalming ointment and as a penitential incense in funerals and cremations until the 15th century.
Because Jesus was fully man, He had the capacity to die. In fact, one of the reasons that God sent Jesus down to earth was for Jesus to die as a sinless sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. God sent Jesus to die on the cross because He loves us. God wants a relationship with us.
But because of Adam and Eve's mistake, every human born is sinful from the start. But we have hope in Jesus. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we now can have a relationship with God as long as we believe that Jesus is God and that He died on the cross for us.
The gift of frankincense was to symbolize the spiritual deity side of Jesus.
Jesus is and will forever be God. While Jesus was on earth, He had the authority of God and also the spiritual powers of God. Jesus had the ability to heal the sick, the leprous, the paralyzed, and anyone else who was not well. Jesus was even able to lift the spirits of the broken and the hopeless.
These three gifts were very special gifts and represented the three qualities of Jesus. I am not against the institution of gift-giving. It is good to receive things you need and want for Christmas. But there is a fine line that is at play during Christmas.
Greed, jealousy, and resentment are present during the Christmas season. The world focuses on only the amount and quality of gifts they get for Christmas and not the reason we celebrate Christmas- to recognize that Jesus is the ultimate gift to the world and that Christmas is a season to love and cherish your family.
I am sick, tired, and grieved by the whole season of Christmas.
The beginning of the Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving, a day where you reflect on the blessings that God has blessed you with and give thanks for them. Black Friday is the start to the Devil's playground of things harmful to the Spirit and to God. Black Friday encourages people to fight others for a discount. Sure, you'll save a few bucks, but is it worth losing your soul to greed, hate, and violence? No object is worth giving people hate, hurting people, and being rude to people. God calls his children (aka us!) to love others.
This Christmas, I challenge you to see the reasons that Christmas is so important. My reason is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the ultimate gift to the world. Your reasons may vary. Perhaps you don't believe in the same God I do, or no god at all. That's okay. We all come from different backgrounds. Every person is entitled to believe what they want to believe. I just want to encourage you to look past material things and look to the truly meaningful things of Christmas.
God bless.
