Today’s 333 Devotional: “The Heart of Christmas”

Over the years people have become accustomed to Christmas being a holiday, where Christmas is associated with the business of buying and selling, giving and receiving. This has caused many people to overlook and even miss the Christmas’s vital meaning for this crazy mixed up world we live in.

We sing the familiar Christmas hymns, but no longer understand the meaning behind them. We read the Christmas story but mistake it’s meaning from all the “made-for-TV” specials.

I think that people have mistaken Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol,” for the real story of Christmas, and that’s because it gets a whole lot more airtime than the story of Jesus Christ coming down to this earth to be born in a manger.

The story of Christmas is quickly losing its meaning. We’re losing the very heart of why Christmas is even celebrated if we haven’t already. Today Christmas has become one long commercial holiday filled with fake joy and the wrong holiday spirits.

A pastor in California put a sign in front of his church that read, “Jesus is the reason for the season. Merry Christmas.” One passerby took offence at this sign and called the church in protest saying, “I don’t think that church should try to drag religion into every holiday.”

By the way, “holiday” is the shortened version of “holy day,” a day that should be set apart for Jesus, not for ourselves.

The heart and meaning of Christmas may best be found in the following verses.

 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

Don’t let the celebration of the world’s rendition of Christmas ruin Christmas’s real and true purpose.