I celebrate by putting a sign outside that says,”Jesus is the reason for the season”. Inside, I display nativities, angels, wise men on camels, etc. and keep songs playing on Allworship.com, or YouTube, that are about the true meaning of Christmas.

I write poetry so every year I make my own Christmas cards with a new poem inside, centered on the gospel message. I enjoy giving out cards that show the true meaning of Christmas.

Today our culture’s commercialism of Christmas does threaten to cover up the true miracle of Christmas – but it can’t – the True Light has come into our world and the darkness cannot hide it, but rather the Light shines in the darkness and overcomes it! All of Christmas is a miracle – the Creator of the universe left His home in glory and took on human flesh to walk some miles in our earthly shoes – Immanuel, God with us – (“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, . . . we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”) a miracle – Eternity entered into our temporal world and tore time in two (thirty-three years later a curtain would also be torn in two) – a miracle – God loving us while we were still sinners, God sending us the gift of His Son, a virgin birth, all the Old Testament prophesies fulfilled in Jesus’s birth, God’s promise to send us a much needed Savior kept, angels talking to shepherds, wise men following a star, Simeon and Anna rejoicing at the sight of the baby Jesus, knowing this was God’s faithfulness to mankind revealed, knowing death was already defeated, even though it would be thirty-three years later and they would not live to see the earthly resurrection of their long awaited Messiah – they didn’t need to – they believed God’s promise, He had sent His Son!

All of Christmas is a miracle that should be celebrated – but unless we remember how great a gift God gave to us in His Son, Jesus, – unless we truly realize the miracle that Jesus’s birth is -we are unable to fully celebrate and rejoice in what God has done for us. It is a miracle of such magnitude that I can scarcely take it all in. The miracle of Christmas? is this – “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” – the greatest gift ever given! Advent is a time of preparing to receive this gift from God, His Son, Jesus. Focusing on the things mentioned in the article, the Bible story of His birth, the Christmas songs that tell the story, the Nativity etc. put our attention where we can see the true Christmas message. reminds me “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” May it be so this Christmas as we all turn our attention to the Christ Child, God’s miraculous, undeserved gift to each and every one of us. The King has come! The King is coming! http://www.mtothe5th.wordpress.com – posts “an alien view of Advent”, “the question Advent asks”, “Advent – seeking and celebrating the sacred”, “gifts of Advent” / children’s book- “Looking for Christmas” by Grace Day

And that is our fault as believers when we allow the secular public to tell us what we can say, do or display. No to Merry Christmas, no to public prayer, no to nativity displays. We HAVE to stand up and say that Jesus is the only reason for our Christmas season.