Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas - Why it Doesn't Matter to Me

Good morning Friends!

This morning my thoughts turn towards a familiar holly jolly Holiday that we all (well most of us anyways) know and love...yes I’m talking about President’s Day...just kidding...Christmas of course. :)

We’re just barely into the season and already it has begun..the heated battle over “Happy Holidays” vs “Merry Christmas”.  I know at this point you’re probably either bracing yourself to defend your position, or checking outta here to avoid the whole spiel.  If you’re hovering over that x-button right now I encourage you to just stick it out with me for a few minutes - I swear it won’t take long.
In previous years I know I’ve been guilty of being involved in the heated battle with my “Merry Christmas” guns ablaze in the passive-aggressive posts of social media.  It can happen all-too-easily...we see a meme, a joke, or an article strongly defending our point and we think, “perfect...that’ll get the point across without me having to do too much work”.  However, I’d like to challenge us this year to do better.


As Christians, do we really believe that Christmas is about Jesus?  “Of course we do; why would you ask such a ridiculous question?” you’re probably saying, so let me follow up with another question.  Do we really believe that Jesus is about love? Love that compelled the King of the Universe to lay aside His Divinity and come down to earth to be born in a dirty, lowly stable for a lost, messy, broken world?  Love that came down for the individuals who have a pretty good life and for the most part have it all together?  Yes, yes, yes you’re probably thinking.  Glad you’re tracking with me...allow me to continue.  
If we as Christians truly believe that Christmas is about Christ, and Christ is about unconditional, sacrificial love; then allow me to ask: are we loving well this Season?  
The sad fact friends is that often times, in our zeal to tell the world about our Saviour at this Season that’s supposed to be a reminder of Hope stepping into our World, our message of Hope and Love get’s muddied, clouded over, and lost in our method’s that can be completely devoid of the very thing we are trying to portray.  It’s no wonder the world doesn’t want to hear our message...we have no platform to stand on when our attitudes don’t match our message.  

Note that I said not just loving, but loving “well”?  Don’t get me wrong; I love to hear Christmas carol’s about Jesus and be greeted with “Merry Christmas” in the stores just as much as the next Christian, but when my focus becomes more about the technicalities of whether a tree should be called a Christmas tree or a Holiday tree, or angered over the fact that a Jolly Fat Man is getting more attention than a Baby in a Manger, am I really loving well?  

So this season I challenge myself and I challenge you dear Christian friend to do something radical.  Instead of being quick to share those angry posts on Facebook, or to kill that poor barista with scowling reprimands about the simple red cup (you know what I mean), or of “I think you mean Merry CHRISTmas”, let’s get our point across with our actions.  This doesn’t mean that we need to tone down our message or begin replacing our “Merry Christmases” with “Happy Holidays”, but what it does mean is that when we say it, let’s mean it….let’s say it in the way that Christ said it when He came as a small, dependant, humble baby in a smelly, unclean manger in the dead of night to an unsuspecting people...no red carpet rolled out, no throngs of people waiting to catch a glimpse of Heaven’s Arrival...and just like today...no room for Him then in the busyness of everyday life….let’s say it with unconditional love, because even if the world doesn’t acknowledge Him this Season...Love never fails.

Love Crystal