I was in a large Catholic cathedral in Cologne, Germany, known for the gold caskets of the three magi who made that long trip to worship the Christ child. One lady near me said to a Catholic priest who was keeping watch nearby, “do you think it is really them?” He said, “what difference does it make, what do you think?”
Christmas is more a thought process than anything else for most people, in the last half of the twentieth century, preparations for Christmas start in the summer. Christmas decorations get entangled with the decorations for Halloween. Some stores stock Christmas products all year round, called “Christmas stores”.
People who never go to church, who know nothing of the Christian light of the world, have lights all over their house on the outside, thousands of lighted bulbs. Christmas trees and decorations of every sort inside their house.
After I was old enough to think clearly, I realized the hypocrisy of the Christmas season, people spending money they do not have on things that people do not want. AS a child, I went to family gatherings where overweight people gorged themselves on high-calorie food. Gave gifts to family members that they ignored most of the year, people sending greeting cards if one were sent in return. I had one great uncle, my grandfather's brother, never married, as far as I know, never spent one night out of the house in which he was born. Mostly ignored by his family, whom he had been very good to when they were young; but at Christmas, they showered him with gifts, things he did not need.
While in college, I stayed on campus and worked, making money so I could stay in school. In the military, I took duty hours for men who needed to be with their children. Later, and until this day, I traveled abroad or just tried to stay out of the rush-crush, people active in the season, attempting to keep up with the dilemma fostered by news media. After all, if you do not get up and go shopping on “black Friday” early in the morning, there is something wrong with your brain.
If you do not put on many pounds during the Christmas holidays, you are not a real person. I have seen grown men dressed in expensive hunting clothing, with their guns, going into the woods to kill small animals at Christmas. Hospital emergency rooms busy, more suicides, more fights on Christmas...so many missing out on Christmas.
The three magi of the biblical Christmas story, probably traveled from Babylon, they were probably royalty (Isaiah 60:3), kings with an entourage. Probably they had hundreds of soldiers and servants with them. Probably, they were followers of Zoroaster (god of light and stars), such were the scientists of their day, studying the skies and stars, they had discovered an unusual star, knew about the prophesy in Daniel relating to the birth of a messiah. After that long, nearly thousand mile trip, they were probably greatly surprised, or even shocked that in Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world, people were not lining the streets talking about the birth of this child.
Like today, we have the word, but we simply don't believe it. If Herod, his followers, the religious people of Jerusalem, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, had believed, they would be in Bethlehem, just as Christ's disciples would have been in the graveyard on that Easter morning. Bethlehem is just six miles from Jerusalem, an easy walk. King Herod's people were familiar with the scripture, told the three magi where they could find the baby. But to show their scathing unbelief, they further chastised the world by saying, when you find him come back and tell us. The three kings found Him, they celebrated the first Christmas, but King Herod, his people, the Jewish religious world, missed out on Christmas, as always, God was in control then as now. He directed the “homeward bound” kings in a new direction.
We are told that at the dedication of Solomon's temple, still until this day, the greatest building ever built by man, 13 acres in size, cedar wood and gold, not a hammer or saw were heard in it's construction, 22,000 oxen and sheep without number were sacrificed.
Sheep for the sacrifice, at the second temple, located near Bethlehem, the shepherds who cared for these sheep were the poorest people in Christendom, not even allowed to go to the temple, could not even give testimony in court. But, dirty, bedraggled poverty-stricken, God's announcement of the birth of His son was made first to them, surely every angel in the universe was present, millions of them singing about the glory of Christmas (Luke 2), a Hallelujah chorus which sent the shepherds, one time in their life leaving their sheep, scurrying to that cave in Bethlehem where they worshiped and with great haste, went out to tell the entire world what they had seen. I am sure the world had trouble believing these poor, uneducated, smelly shepherds. But these shepherds had not missed out on the first Christmas, and for the 2000+ years since, those who have experienced “rebirth” have been willing to tell others and for that reason, people throughout the world have not missed out on Christmas.
Christmas is a mental thing, not fulfilled with gifts or even giving spreeing or partying. Christ is the center of Christmas, the cure for heart trouble; the world the pretenders, want to believe in Christmas, so afraid they will miss something at Christmas. The world, the imposters, the pretenders have missed out on Christmas unless they know personally the light of the world, not artificial lights, know the sweetness of salvation, not the addictive sweeteners. Know the true meaning of the red berries and thorns of the holly tree, which show us again His blood shed for our sin. His thorn-crowned brow brandished for our inequity. Don't miss out on Christmas.
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