I get hung up on Christmas

I was putting up my beloved nativity that my grandmother gave me the first year I was married when the thoughts stirred up in me again. I love the nativity, because I love her, but there are several things that really bug me about this nativity. All the participants are lily white. Caucasian as they come. I think Joseph even has strawberry blond hair. 

And there are wise men. I scoot them waaaay down the mantle, to make them look far away. They are white too, and there are 3 of them. We don't know how many there were and they didn't get there until Jesus was about 2. They can't help it, but those wise men bother me.

Jesus wasn't born in December, and I promise you, if Allen hears me talk about this one more time, we will be on the news. First manslaughter caused by the discussion of the birth of Baby Jesus.

But since this is my blog, I'll say it again. He was most likely born in September. Some pinpoint the day as September 11th, which is kinda creepy to me. But anyway, let's not go there. And that may not be right anyway. But the point is, He was definitely not born in December. 

Jesus told us to celebrate His death, but never mentioned His birth. It makes me so sad for Him, that we don't even celebrate His birth on the right day when I'm not sure He ever intended for us to celebrate it to begin with. And we mix it up with all this shopping, stress and choas. I've heard so many people, including myself, say "'tis the season" when it comes to being stressed. *sigh*



I keep a little nativity on my window sill in the kitchen, and I thank God for sending His son almost every day. I try to every day, but I fail miserably. So it's not that I don't want to thank God for His son, but this whole Christmas thing bothers me a tad.

My "weird" friend, who shall remain nameless, doesn't celebrate Jesus's birth at Christmas. Neither does her church. They celebrate the birth all year long, and Christmas is Santa, food, family, fun and fellowship.



I sort of like that.

Do you know what would happen if we shunned the whole "Jesus is the Reason" mindset? My family is already terribly weird because we don't pretend Santa is real. We pretend that he's pretend. Oh, people get upset at that one. I'd hate to add, "We don't celebrate Jesus either." It'd be ugly.

Allen is not this weird. I promise you. He rolls his eyes, and tries really hard to understand why I struggle with this so much. And I guess I just needed to say it again, this year. It's like part of my Christmas tradition. You know, like, put up the tree, decorate, shop and whine about Christmas.

Okay, this guy understands me a bit:

"A little humility is a very good thing when we're about the business of interpreting Scripture. We need to recognize that Scripture doesn't tell us everything we might be curious about, and so there are things that we simply can't know for sure. One thing we can be reasonably sure of, though, is that if the Bible doesn't give us full information on something, it probably isn't crucial for us to know it. If we're getting stymied in trying to figure out something, we're probably heading off on a rabbit trail, and missing the main point of what the author wanted us to see. It might be a good idea, this Christmas season, to forget about what we know of the whole Christmas story, and to read the individual Christmas stories once again, and see the different angles that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew and Luke to tell us about. Come to think of it, it might not be a bad thing to blog on...."
(Link)

I need to take his words to heart, and listen to what the Spirit tells me about Christmas. I'm telling ya, It won't let this go with me. I must spout off each year about what I don't like about Christmas. I wish the Scripture was more clear, but I know it's not because of people like me. No amount of information will ever be enough.

Don't worry - my kids have a great holiday. I haven't poisoned their minds yet. Although I do make them say, "This is when we CELEBRATE Jesus' birth" instead of "This is when Jesus was born." I know-horrible. I'll make it up by buying them tons of commerically produced and mass marketed gifts... :)

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts, we traverse afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain

Following yonder star....