Christmas is very soon and I thought I would share some great symbolism that sometimes gets lost in our culture around this time of the year…for example…

The Wreath

The wreath is a sign of the love that God has for us. It is round as to speak of the unending love that God gives us. There is no beginning and end, it is, and goes on forever. The wreath was a symbol people would hang up on their doors and houses as a sign of Christ’s love. The wreath is made of evergreen which speaks of the life that God gave us through Jesus. Evergreens last all year round through the seasons.  It also is a picture of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when He gave His life for us on the cross. Now we have advent wreaths and all different kinds that are there to point us to the love that God has for us through Jesus!

Christmas Lights

We all love Christmas lights. We put lights on our trees, houses, bannisters, and will even drive around to look at lights. Lights are hung as a sign of the true light of the world…Jesus! The Word of God says that Jesus is the light of the world. In Him in no darkness. Electric lights replaced candles that were traditionally lit as a sign of the light coming into the world through the birth of Jesus! So the next time you see Christmas lights let it remind you of the light of the world…Jesus!

The Christmas Tree

Here is an article about the Christmas tree from EWTN (Eternal World Television Network) that captures some great insight…

An interesting tradition, part history, part legend and very popular in Germany, claims that the Christmas tree dates back to the eighth century. This legend is based on a historical figure, St Boniface, and even a historical event, the destruction of Odin’s oak. St Boniface (675-754) was the English Bishop Winfrid who went to Germany in the eighth century, to Hesse to be precise, to preach the Christian faith as a missionary from the Church of Rome. After a period of apparently successful Gospel preaching, Boniface went to Rome to confer with Pope Gregory II (715-731). After a long absence, he returned to Geismar, Germany, for Christmas 723, and felt personally offended on discovering that the Germans had reverted to their former idolatry of pagan divinities and were preparing to celebrate the winter solstice by sacrificing a young man under Odin’s sacred oak tree. Fired by holy anger, as was Moses by the golden calf, Bishop Boniface took up an axe and dared to cut down the oak. This courageous, historically documented act meant the triumph of Christianity in Germany over the pagan divinities.

All this is historically documented. The rest belongs to the legend which tells how, at the first blow of the axe, a strong gust of wind instantly brought down the tree. The astounded Germans fearfully recognized the hand of God in this event and humbly asked Boniface how they should celebrate Christmas. The Bishop, the legend continues, pointed to a small fir tree that had miraculously remained upright and intact beside the debris and broken branches of the fallen oak. Boniface was familiar with the popular custom of taking an evergreen plant into the house in winter and asked everyone to take home a fir tree. This tree signifies peace, and as an evergreen it also symbolizes immortality; with its top pointing upwards, it additionally indicates heaven, the dwelling place of God.

Happy Holidays

Now this statement has gotten a pretty bad wrap among Christians lately. The religious community is almost offended by this word that is used instead of Merry Christmas, but before you get too angry about it let me fill you in on this phrase…The word holiday comes from the word HOLY DAY! This was any day that was observed for religious reasons. So the word holy day morphed into the word holiday over time. Holy day is about the birth of Jesus, it was truly a holy day! So the next time someone says, “Happy Holidays” just say, “Happy holy day to you as well, the day Christ was born!” The world doesn’t even know that when they substitute Happy Holiday for Merry Christmas they are still referring to the birth of Jesus!

X-Mas

Many Christians also get perturbed about the phrase X-Mas. They believe it is another blatant attempt at removing Christ from Christmas. However, in the Greek the letter for Jesus The Messiah is…guess what…X. X-Mas is short for Christmas! Again, there is no removing Christ from this holy day! Christmas was shortened to X-Mas as symbolic of the letter for Jesus! So remember in the midst of this season that X-Mas is just another form of honoring Christ!

Christmas

The word Christmas comes from 2 words…Christ & Mass. One day a year the church would celebrate the birth of Jesus by having a special communion to recognize the birth of Jesus they would call Christ’ Mass. December 25th was traditionally a pagan holiday where society would worship the sun God since it was the longest day of the year. So when Christianity was sweeping across the world Rome combined the 2 holidays in order to promote worship to God Almighty! When this happened the church would celebrate Christ’ Mass on December 25th as worship to the birth of Jesus. Over time this phrase of Christ’ Mass was turned into the modern word Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!