It's nearly Christmas once more. I love Christmas, but Christmas blogposts are almost always, at least as I try to write them, about the past year and the coming year. Right now, that's exactly what I feel like I should write about. A lot happened this past year and a lot is happening next year.
But Christmas comes between. Christmas.
It's hard to even know what Christmas is anymore. Well, I know what Christmas is. It's the day we celebrate Christ's birth. But when was the last time Christmas was just a day? Christmas is bigger than a day, and probably rightfully so. But it's a feeling, it's a rhythm, it's a hanging in the air balance of the now and the not yet. It's advent, it's trees, it's lights, it's peace. It's gifts, it's love.
Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas. Christmas is, and that is all.
Christmas is the ultimate binary. It's the breaking dawn, the coming day. Darkness cannot be where light is.
It seems like Christmas is the time when it's socially acceptable to be a Christian, and it makes me hopeful, but I'm not quite sure why. In China, they display pictures of Santa at churches, because it's an accepted Christian symbol, as a symbol of Christmas. I don't think we keep in mind how Christian Christmas is because we spend so much time focusing on how Christian it isn't. Not every does it for the right reason, that's for sure...indeed, far from it...but there's something somewhat exciting and hopeful about how the only day the world shuts down in the U.S. is to celebrate Christ's birth, even if so many people have no idea what that quite means and don't do anything quite in line with what he'd want.
To hear a lot of people talk, you'd think it'd be better if people didn't celebrate Christmas at all than to do it poorly. Last I checked though, there aren't other things, good things, we'd rather people not do than to do it with the wrong motives or style. I do with more people really knew Christ and could really celebrate Christmas with the right reasons and deference...but much like I'd rather people feed the hungry out of self-glorification than to not do it at all...I guess somewhere, in some ways, I'm alright with people observing a celebration of Christ's birth, even if for the wrong reasons.
So ultimately, I'm all for Santa, all for 24/7 Christmas music, all for Christmas movies and egg nog. You can say they detract from Jesus, but only if you let them. They, if nothing else, point to how big of a deal the celebration of Christ's birth is, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
As always though, I'm opposed to how Americans choose to spend their money. But it's much less how they spend it and much more how they don't. I couldn't care less about and indeed I'm completely for people giving gifts to each other. But that doesn't change how little it would take, in light of how rich we, as Americans, are, to change the world, and we, time and time again, choose not to help out. 50 billion dollars would go to fight poverty if we would spend ten percent of what we spend on Christmas gifts on charitable work. We're celebrating the birth of someone who said two things: love each other and feed the hungry. We could at least try to do that in his honor.
-Zack
"I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain, and sorrow
Leave your heart and let your road be clear"
-Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
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