Why We Celebrate Christmas

~ Posted by Roma

“This is a very old picture of us kids in Michigan back when we were really small in 2006!” J

It has come to my attention, especially this past year, that there are a number of Christians who actually do not celebrate Christmas. Some Christians celebrate parts of Christmas, but may not do all the things other Americans love doing—such as a tree, Santa, presents, etc. Some Christians really emphasize Thanksgiving (which is good—Thanksgiving is wonderful!) because they know they will not be doing any celebrating in December. Other Christians love Christmas time (like our family J) and then there are some Christians that really don’t celebrate it at all and they have reasons why they don’t. In this blog post, I would like to take a look at the origins of Christmas and then try to explain why our family still celebrates it.

Before I begin…one thing I love about this free country we live in is that you have the freedom to not celebrate Christmas if you don’t want to. In writing this blog post, I am not trying to force anyone to celebrate Christmas. I simply want to share why we do. And I will be very open with you…we love Christmas time! We love Jesus. We love celebrating His birth. We go all out with Christmas tree (s) PLURAL in our home. We have so many ornaments full of memories. We exchange gifts, eat a lot, have a tiny little nativity scene in the corner of the living room, have advent activities and readings with candles at night, listen to Christmas music—Christmas is a favorite in this family.

Some Christians believe Christmas has pagan origins. And they are right. Here is what Hank Hanegraaff says in his book, The Complete Bible Answer Book:

“December 25^th was indeed a pagan festival commemorating the birthday of a false god. While this is historical fact, what is frequently overlooked is that the church’s choice of December 25^th was intentional. Instead of Christianizing a pagan festival, the church established a rival celebration. While the world has all but forgotten the Greco-Roman gods of antiquity, they are annually reminded that two thousand years ago Christ invaded time and space.”

So what Hanegraaff is saying is that Christians in the early Church decided to establish a rival holiday instead of celebrating the pagan one. They wanted to point people to Christ at Christmas. Most people know that we don’t really know exactly when Jesus was born. He probably wasn’t even born in December at all. But think about this: What if you adopted a child from…Haiti. He or she has no birth certificate. You know around the time he might have been born but you don’t know exactly when. Do you decide to pick a day to celebrate his birthday, or do you just decide to never recognize his birth and celebrate your biological children’s birthdays only? No! You would pick a day to celebrate that child’s birth because you love that child that you’ve brought home from Haiti! How much more, then, should Jesus Christ the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Master of the universe, be celebrated! I believe He deserves to be celebrated. He didn’t have to leave earth at all to save us wretched sinners. But God decided to not even withhold His one and only Son from us.

Some Christians argue that He should be celebrated every day. I absolutely agree. But even though your parents celebrate every day that you are their child, they still set aside an even more special day to remember that you have been with them another year. Angels in heaven celebrate Jesus every minute of every day. But at Christmas time, they took the time to come down to earth, mingle with people, and sing “Glory to God in the Highest!!!” To the angels, it was a VERY special occasion. As Christians, our Lord and Savior is celebrated by us every day. But we also put aside an even more special day to remember His birth—His first coming--and to remind us to love, and remind us to give.

What about Christmas trees? I mean—aren’t those really pagan? Here is the passage from the Bible that Christians sometimes point to: Jeremiah 10:2-4. At first glance, this scripture does seem to be condemning Christmas trees. Let’s take a look at it:

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree from the woods in the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.’

Hmm. Interesting. Do we use hammers and nails in a Christmas tree? No. Do we shape our Christmas trees with chisels? Usually not. Jeremiah was not talking about Christmas trees. He was talking about wooden idols, that people in his day would fasten with hammer and nails and shape with chisels, and bow down to and worship. In fact, Hank Hanegraaff says something very interesting in his book, regarding Christmas trees:

“Christmas trees originated in Christian Germany two thousand years after Jeremiah’s condemnation of manmade idols. They evolved over time from two Christian traditions. One was a ‘paradise tree’ hung with apples as a reminder of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The other was a triangular shelf holding Christmas figurines decorated by a star.”

In our house, we love to put up Christmas trees; first, because it reminded Christians long ago--and reminds us--of the tree of life that one day we will eat from in Heaven; and second, because Jesus would later die on a tree to save us from our sins. As for our ornaments, we put those up simply because they are all so special to us in different ways. One ornament has a buck and a doe, inscribed with the year my Mom and Dad got married, and it says: “Our first Christmas together.” J Another ornament in our house has a picture of us kids with one of our adopted college student brothers, O. Other ornaments on our tree are ones that we made, ones that family and friends gave us, etc.

Then there is Santa Claus. What do we do with him? Actually, he is far from being a dangerous fairy tale. “Santa Claus” is an Anglicized form of the Dutch name “Sinter Klaas” which in turn is a reference to Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas can be celebrated as a genuine hero of the faith, just like Luther, or Calvin, or Spurgeon, or any of those other great men of God. He was an historic 4^th –century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who had a reputation for secret gift-giving. He lavished gifts on needy children, and valiantly supported the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea in AD 325.

Of course, our world has taken that story and completed secularized it and changed it up. I will be honest with you…my parents allowed us kids to believe in Santa Claus when we were really little, and we loved it. We loved the idea that he was watching us in a snow ball, seeing if we were good or naughty. ;) We loved the idea that he was the one that left the gifts, came down the chimney, ate our milk and cookies, and left us a note. (Back in the day when we didn’t know what our Dad’s handwriting looked like). But when we all reached an appropriate age, my Mom would pull us aside and talk to us about the real Saint Nicholas. To this day, even though we all know the truth, my parents still label half of the gifts “from Santa” just for the fun of it. Whether or not you allow your kids to believe in Santa for awhile is up to you, but we loved it as little kids. Just like we loved the tooth fairy. J

In the end, I believe that this is all a heart issue. I believe that if your heart is in the right place, and you do not worship the Christmas trees nor Santa nor anything else on earth, and you know the reason for the season—CHRISTmas, than I think it is okay to put up a tree and give gifts and hang lights and remember the life of Saint Nicholas, and remember what JESUS has done to save you.

For us, Christmas is about how much God loved the world, that He sent his one and only Son. Christmas is about love; about giving; because God gave the best gift ever by giving us His Son, to be born and live and grow, and one day shed his blood on the cross for our sins, so that now we have a way to be with God in heaven when we die. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and trust Him with your life, if you have not done so yet.

“Christmas 2011 at Abuela and Abuelo’s house in Ohio.”

In conclusion, we celebrate Christmas because it is first and foremost about Christ, after whom it is named. We put up a tree, because Christ would later die on a tree. We give gifts because God gave the greatest gift to us. by giving His one and only Son. We put up lights because we as Christians are the light of the world; a city on a hill. Jesus is the light of the world and He lives in us. Our red bows remind us how Christ came to this earth to shed His blood for us on the cross. We put up round wreaths because God is eternal, He has no end. He has always been there. He made us. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The evergreen is also a symbol of everlasting (eternal) life! We eat—and share--candy canes, which are shaped like shepherd staffs and remind us that shepherds were one of the first ones to hear about Jesus! These candies are red and white because the blood of Jesus Christ can wash you clean of sin and make you white as snow. We sing Christmas carols that celebrate and honor Jesus Christ. Everything points to Christ at Christmas and we can take this holiday and USE it as a great witnessing opportunity. I love Christmas! HE is the reason for the season! MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

Thanksgiving

~Posted by Josiah

This past Thanksgiving, we had family come visit us in Oklahoma. My Bia and Bio, and my Uncle and Aunt and cousins all flew in from Ohio on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and they stayed until Saturday! We had plenty of time to spend with them. So us kids and our cousins got to play all kinds of games together, build a fort in the woods, practice for a Christmas play, and my 12-year-old cousin E and I ran from my 7-year-old cousin J when he and my Dad drove the giant John Deere tractor right in our direction!

Out of the way, everybody!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a huge meal! We also did our tradition of writing some things we’re thankful for on little colored paper leaves, and then hanging them up on a big paper tree my sister Roma made.

We five siblings also sang some Thanksgiving Bible verses set to music, and then cousin E gave a speech about the theological error of eating fried chicken! (You kind of had to be there!) J

Our table set for many J

Lots to be thankful for!

Thankful tree filling up with leaves

On Friday, our friends the B’s drove up from Texas to spend the day with us. Their two boys, the two cousins, and we five kids all played one BIG game of hide-and-go-seek. The grown-ups visited, drank hot chocolate, played board games, and put together a big puzzle.

Saturday morning we ate donuts and watched some of the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. At lunchtime, we drove our relatives back to the airport to catch their flight home. It was hard to see them go, but we’re not sad because we’re going to see them again at Christmas! We can hardly wait!

Our airport goodbyes…for now!

"Business By the Book" Book Review

~Posted by Ben

As assigned reading for school, I have been reading “Business by the Book” by the late Christian economist, Larry Burkett. Since Business is one of my main career interests (politics being the other) I was really looking forward to reading this book! It was published in 1990, right on the heels of a time in business known as “the greedy eighties.” This term used in business circles describes a time of economic prosperity following Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts on the wealthy in the early 80’s. These tax cuts caused a resurgence in small business investment that sparked an unprecedented interest in entrepreneurism and “climbing the corporate ladder.” This effect was the backbone of the “Reagan recovery” from stagflation.

Such changes had both positive and negative consequences on American culture, especially the culture of American Business. Although the 80’s were a time of great economic growth, blue collar cities like Detroit and Flint experienced a grave economic downturn due to disinvestment and deindustrialization. Sadly, many businesses came to the harmful conclusion, “profits over people.”

It was at the pinnacle of this time period that Burkett wrote “Business by the Book.” In it, he presents the “radical” idea that it is entirely possible to conduct Business in such a way that is profitable, productive, and Biblical. He cites the reconstruction of Japan after World War II as his prime example. When General Douglas was appointed by President Truman as the military governor of Japan, he instituted laws for business largely based off Biblical truths. This, combined with the Japanese inherit respect for authority, as well as their strong unity and national pride, propelled them beyond their teacher to become one of the largest economies in the modern world. Burkett also gives a variety of positive examples of Christian businesses in the US that have based their business plan off of the scriptures and have experienced great profit for it.

In this book, Burkett deals with a lot of required decisions in modern business, including decisions on hiring, firing, borrowing, lending, management selection, employee pay, discounting, and many others. He also, using scripture, provides answers to many questions common among Christian businesses; questions such as, “Should I hire women to be in management over men?” “Should Christian businesses hire non-Christians?” “Is it acceptable for Christian businesses to borrow money?” “Can Christians sue people and/or other businesses for money?” “What do I do about an insubordinate employee?” When addressing all these questions, Burkett constantly goes back to scripture when giving his final answer on the subject.

I would highly encourage anyone interested in business and entrepreneurship to read this incredible book! My dad and I are now doing it as a weekly study, as many of its principles apply to everyday situations we both experience at work. I’m so grateful for Larry Burkett and all the wisdom he was able to share over the course of his life!