Christmas!

How did the Christmas season go this time round? Carols, cakes and shopping – the three wise men that we wait for round the year finally arrived. This time round I couldn’t be home since I didn’t get vacation at work. Christmas is an avalanche experience. There is the winter, then come the lights, the carols, the vacation planning, the shopping. The first signs of the season start with the winter chill that meets you late November. Then the vacation planning adds its ‘thing’ to the season. Now we are in December and our vacations are planned. The season gathers momentum as the Christmas carols hit the music scene. Weekends are filled with Carol singsong services. The Christmas avalanche has gathered quite a bit of snow now. Living rooms suddenly sprout indoor plantation called Christmas trees loaded with tinsel and confetti. Stars dangle from porches and light arrangement greet you in the local store. Before you know it, Christmas shopping is here. It gets added to the huge Christmas avalanche. And “then one foggy Christmas eve, Santa came to sleigh” as the song goes, Santa with his plastic smile makes an appearance either at your Carol service or the Carol rounds. Cakes have vanished from the Baker’s counter overnight. The avalanche has picked up everything on the way now and has reached top speed. Christmas wishes start dominating SMS content and there you are at the eye of the storm. It’s Christmas eve. It’s a magical world. A glow everywhere. A glint in every eye. A smile on every face. Then the whole season culminates at the Christmas mass. The avalanche is about to hit the rock. The Church aisle is a heady mix of perfumes and new clothes. The Christmas day dawns as we leave church and reach home groggy from the rollercoaster ride. The avalanche has truly hit the rock and has collapsed leaving the riders dizzy.


Well, what is Christmas? In my opinion it’s an excuse for Christians to have fun. They would have you believe otherwise. They call it “a season of love”. “It’s the time to remember our Lord’s birth” they would tell you. Their carols speak of “peace on earth and goodwill to men”. But I would whistle and walk away singing an empty line from a silly song “tis a season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la” as if to tell them that the season and all its accompaniments are as empty as the line.

To me Christmas is not the season. To me it’s the birth of our Lord. It is not remembering the birth. It’s the actual birth of our Lord. When a man would look at himself in comparison with God and cry out in his heart like Peter did on the shores of Galilee “Go away from me Lord, for I’m a sinner”, then its Christmas. When Christ is born in a man’s life just like he was formed in Mary’s womb miraculously by the Holy Spirit, its Christmas. When that birth is apart from man and only by God, just like the first Christmas, then its Christmas – the birth of Christ. Christmas happens when nobody expects it. It happens suddenly. It happens of God.

It’s not remembering the birth of the Lord, for you can remember all you want about the nativity and the manger scene but it still would make no difference to your life. The world will know when Christmas happens. It will show in the Christian’s life. You don’t have to sing carols and wear new clothes. The world will know by your life. The world will know when Christmas happens in a home. We don’t have to put up a Christmas tree and suspend a plastic star in the porch. The world will know. It knew when it happened in one Zacchaeus’ home and it will know when it happens in your home too.