Written by Peter Blanch
Here are some sayings and jokes about Christmas you may or may not enjoy: but humour me and make sure you keep reading to the end!
- What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic – Unknown
- The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn’t for any religious reasons. They couldn’t find three wise men – Jay Leno
- I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. – Shirley Temple
- Why is Christmas just like a day at the office? – because you do all the work and the fat guy in the suit gets all the credit – unknown
- Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale
- Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. – Mary Ellen Chase
- The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family
all wrapped up in each other. – Burton Hillis - Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year. – Victor Borge
- There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not
be a child. – Erma Bombeck (I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression)
What is interesting to notice is that when the Bible describes the reason for the first Christmas day, it has a very different feel about it. The apostle Paul has his own comment about Christmas:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.”
1 Timothy 1:15
The Bible speaks of the heart of Christmas being the reality of sinners needing to be saved. The accounts in the gospels of Jesus birth give the same emphasis:“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Jesus gave up the beauty and perfection of heaven to be born into this world as a man, in order to display God’s character to us – that we might understand our desperate situation in our lives of rebellion against our Creator.
Jesus didn’t come to bring Christmas cheer. He didn’t come to help us to display our love language of gift-giving. He didn’t even come to draw families together around a table overburdened with rich food. Jesus came into the world to die – to offer himself up as a sacrifice so that he could offer us true and complete forgiveness of our sins, and peace with God.
For many people this heartbeat of Christmas is so easily lost. The clarity of God’s message to us in the Bible is swamped by the trivial distractions that have become part and parcel of the “silly season”.
It is our hearts desire that we as a church family can speak and act in ways that help bring this heartbeat of Christmas to the forefront of the minds of those we know and love in our region.
One of the ways we are trying to refocus the real meaning of Christmas is by holding our “Christmas Unwrapped” celebration service in our usual church time slot on Sunday morning 14th December.
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to invite people to come and hear a clear explanation of the gospel. It is one of the easiest events to invite your friends to. Don’t miss this opportunity to give the best Christmas present you could give.
There are plenty of invitations that you can grab today from the table up the back. Think of your neighbours, your work colleagues, your mothers group, your sporting club, school parents, gym friends, consider all your friends and family and prayerfully commit to inviting them to join us on that Sunday.
Phyllis Diller, the comedienne, says:
“Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his presents remembered.”
Yet in Jesus, we have our past forgiven – permanently dealt with – and the gift of his presence in our lives! Now that is something worth remembering – and celebrating – and passing on to others!
Praise God for this, the real meaning of Christmas. Plead with God for the salvation of your friends and family – ask that this December might be the year that they finally understand the reality of “Christmas – unwrapped”.
Peter Blanch
