If There Were No Christmas...

It's a couple of days after Christmas. The magic is over...the secrets revealed. It's back to the everyday tasks of life.

Without going into any of the history of Christmas or of Christmas traditions, since I'm not familiar with them anyway, I'd like to stop and invite you to think with me about what it would be like if there was no Christmas.

Superficially, if there was no Christmas, the most important source of income for retail stores, at least here in the USA, would not exist. The buying frenzy that fuels many businesses because of gift-giving at Christmas time would be gone. Perhaps there would be something else that would rise up to take its place, but without having statistics at my disposal, I suspect that all the other holidays we celebrate in our American culture put together wouldn't produce as much revenue as Christmas does.

Also superficially, we wouldn't have all the music, the movies such as "It's a Wonderful Life," the special Christmas pageants, concerts, plays, parties, etc that fill up our December calendars. In short, December would be pretty drab and dreary. We would also miss out on those special family get-togethers that Christmas affords. Oh, and don't forget - there would be no candy canes, no Christmas stockings, no Santa Claus, no divinity fudge, no Christmas goodies in the form of candies, cookies, fruitcakes, fruit filled breads, etc.

On a slightly less superficial level, would we take the time sometime during the year to extend wishes for peace, prosperity and happiness to our friends and neighbors if we didn't have Christmas traditions that encouraged us to do so?

On yet another level, if there was no Christmas, then Christ the "newborn king" would not have come. The implications of this would be astronomical. The apostle Paul described it best in his first letter to the Corinthian church. Although he was talking specifically about the resurrection from the dead, if Christ had never been born, He would not have lived, taught and walked on earth. Nor would He have gone to the cross and been raised from the dead. I Corinthians 15:3-4 says:

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

I don't want to venture a guess on how many prophecies there are in the Old Testament regarding the birth of Jesus, but there are many, some well known, others obscure! None of them specify a date, but all of them together make a very strong case for the FACT of his birth. No other fact in history has such overwhelming evidence to back it up. Some of those prophetic scriptures talk about his death and sacrifice for our sin. If He had not come, we would still be waiting for the fulfillment of those scriptures.

One of my favorite Christmas songs this year is one that the group "GO FISH" sings. It sums up what Christmas is all about. Here it is:



If you enjoyed this post or have thoughts to share, please comment. I love getting comments!

Sharon
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