By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
We are officially in the final days of the Christmas season. As you read this column in the print issue, Christmas Day is about three weeks away.
As we know, however, the unofficial Christmas season began even before Halloween was over as stores began promoting Christmas gift buying and decorating for the season.
Now is the time people are “getting ready” for Christmas by going to parties and celebrations or buying those special Christmas gifts. If you don’t believe me, just go to any department store, but do so at your own risk.
We always worry about automobile accidents during the holiday season, but I am waiting for this announcement on the television: “We interrupt our programming to bring breaking news from the local department store. “Twelve people were seriously injured in a 12-cart pileup while trying to reach the last toy on the shelf.” That sounds funny and I suppose it is, but it’s not far from the realm of possibility. I have almost been a victim of a shopper gone wild.
Incidents such as those should be a reminder that we need to act like Christians at all times, even when shopping. But, if you don’t, at least don’t wear your “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” sweatshirt as you knock someone over with your shopping cart.
Lonnie Wilkey
Yet, preparing for Christmas is more than buying gifts, decorating your home or picking out that perfect Christmas tree. Though that is fun to do, those things are not what Christmas is about.
Lifeway Research released an interesting story last week (see page 11). The lead paragraph in the story summed it up quite well. “Most people in America may hang Christmas decorations and exchange gifts on Dec. 25, but few say they could give all the details about the biblical Christmas story.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but to be honest, I was. I am nearly 64 years old and I can’t remember not ever hearing the Christmas story.
I was in church “Christmas plays” at an early age through my teenage years. Even though my memory is not what it used to be, I feel I could come pretty close to recounting the Christmas story found in Luke 2.
Yet, according to the research, only one in five say they can accurately tell the story from memory. Even when you add those who “may miss some details or get others wrong,” that means about 50 percent of the rest of Americans either can tell part of it or none at all.
How can that happen in a nation that claims to be Christian? Well, apparently those who claim Christianity don’t know what it truly means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
With that said, Christians need to set the example. We need to be a witness all year round, but especially during the Christmas season. Let’s put as much spiritual preparation in for Christmas as we do the things that really are insignificant in terms of eternity.
What could happen if we spent the remaining weeks before Christmas Day in prayer daily? What could happen if we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 daily so it can be engrained in our minds if it is not already? Maybe, just maybe, if someone before Christmas Day asks, “What is Christmas really about?” you could give a “real” answer instead of having a blank look on your face.
Continue to “get ready” for your Christmas parties and gift-giving, but also let’s get our hearts and minds spiritually ready for one of the two most important days (Easter is the other) of the year. Just remember, if Jesus had not come to be born in a stable in Bethlehem and later die on the cross of Calvary, we would have nothing to celebrate. Our life would be without hope. Jesus is our only hope! B&R
