CAN I STILL ENJOY CHRISTMAS WITHOUT A NEW CLOTHS AND OUTSIDE PARTY?

Christmas is always a big deal not only in Uganda, but in Africa as a continent. It’s a big deal not because everyone understands what it means or stands for. People get excited about it primarily because of the celebrations (the eats, drinks, dance parties, new clothes) that comes with it.

The month of December is when the business men makes a year’s worth of profit in sale to people who are shopping for Christmas. Parties and celebrations begins as we enter the last month of the year and would run until the first week of January. The downside to this kind of excitements and expenses it brings has created a wrong assumption, an inaccurate belief that for Christmas to be meaningful all the above must be present.

2020 however turned out to be something no one in the world could imagine. The death, the sufferings, the quarantine, the lockdown, the travel restrictions and a whole lot came with the two repeated letters, 2020. From the look of things we are far from getting back to normal. This is true whether you’re referring to the old normal or the new normal.

We praise God that there’s vaccines being worked on and is showing all the positive signs that it’s going to work, but that’s still in the horizon and far from reach for the majority common man. This means the current new lifestyle will continue and only God knows for how long.

Now that we cannot have the Christmas parties, the dances, the outings, the shopping both because of financial reasons and health risk factors, can Christmas still be meaningful? You may be struggling with this question yourself.

If there’s anything that the COVID-19 has done that we can and should be thankful for is that it has made us rethink our priorities, it has made us reevaluate what the most important things are in our lives. I hope it helps us see Christmas with new pairs of lenses and then be able to celebrate it with the new insights.

The meaningfulness of Christmas is not measured or should not be weighed against the clothing worn, the kind of fun we can have or the food on the table. It never has and never will be found in the things the world offers. We cannot find God’s meaning in the worlds dictionary of goodness or fun. The ways of the world is different from that of Christ (Isaiah 55:9).

The real meaning of Christmas is found in a cradle and a baby laying in a manger. “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12). Jesus Christ is the reason for Christmas, not the kind of cloths we wear or the food we have on our table. Those things are not bad in themselves, they are just not the reason for the season.

You can have all the things above but without the birth of Jesus and the purpose of His coming which is to save us from our sins your Christmas will not be meaningful. John the Baptist declared in his testimony about Jesus as he pointed everyone to Him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This verse gives us the reason for Christmas, on it we celebrate the birth of the “Lamb of God” who was born to take away our sins.

“And God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is where the meaningfulness of Christmas is found. The Word itself defines it. CHRIST-MAS. A mas is an organized celebration of something, a specified festival of something or someone. Christmas is therefore an organized celebration of Christ.

Christmas celebrations ought to Focus on Jesus Christ, His birth and his ultimate sacrificial atoning death on the cross for you and I. Let the lyrics to the song Lord I lift your name ring in your heart as you go through this season.

You came from heaven to earth to show the way.

From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay

From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky

Lord I lift Your name on high

Do not dwell on the things you have or do not have, turn your attention to what God has done for you in His Son Jesus Christ and you will have the most meaningful Christmas you’ve ever had. I pray you and all of us will find real meaning of Christmas in Christ our Savior.

Kasule Jacob (MTS) is the founder of Galactic Foundation Ministries in Uganda. He holds a Master of Theological Studies from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA. He is the Senior Pastor of Acacia Community Church in Jinja, Uganda; a Bible teacher with East African Outreach Pastor Training Center and an Adjunct lecturer of New Testament Greek, Church History, Hermeneutics, Bible & Family and Quasi Christian Religions at Uganda Baptist Seminary.

https://kasuleisrael.wixsite.com/galacticfoundation