Luciano Branco, a French pastor, explains that our culture’s ‘Christmas’ lights celebrate light at what feels like the darkest part of the year. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”, coming to bring light to the dark places in this world and in our hearts: “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”(John 8:12). Jesus came to offer peace with God to anyone who would accept it, irrespective of race, gender or background.
Branco suggests that when a child is given a present s/he is being shown that they they matter to someone, that life has some good things for them – they are given the gift of hope. Jesus came to show how much all people matter to God, to offer hope to everyone – peace with God both in this life and the next.
Christmas is about Jesus coming to live and suffer as a human being, to relate to man not as a distant God but as someone who knows how difficult this world is to live in. As he went about teaching he focused on including the neglected, the marginalised, those regarded as socially unacceptable, promising: “whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37).
Everyone enjoys the brightly coloured Christmas lights as they bring some encouragement to dark evenings and suggest the hope of brighter days to come. For Christians they also point to the hope offered by Jesus, that his light has overcome the darkness.
So that’s what Christmas is about. I hope you have a great one 🙂 .
See also
A Tale of Two Christmases (Christmas and the influence of the author Charles Dickens on how we celebrate it).
What is Easter and why does it matter? (Christmas only makes sense in the light of Easter, when Jesus died for man’s sin and was resurrected to prove that he has power to give life to those who commit themselves to him).