December has come and with it comes all the joys of Christmas. To many this is the time off work, a year-end bonus, and a moment to receive gifts. Right now when you move around the city centers, the decorating, shopping, and traveling has added so much stress on some people’s faces. The season has turned out to be one of sorrow; in a way that many don’t have the extra money to buy presents for their children, family, and friends. Many are saddened when they think of their loved ones who will not be able to come home for various reasons.
What all these reveal to us is that they each focus on things that are subsidiary to the true significance of why Christmas exits and why we celebrate it.
What then is the real meaning of Christmas? Is it the gifts under the tree, the lights in the windows, the cards in the mail, the parties and dinners with family and friends, or shouts of “Merry Christmas” to those who pass us in the streets? Is this really Christmas? Well, while none of those things are bad in themselves, they can’t be the ultimate reason you and I need or cerebrate Christmas, since you can get all of them without Christmas.
Our Need for Christmas (Genesis 3)
The answer to why we need and cerebrate Christmas does not even lie in the Christmas stories of the gospels we are used to. It rather goes back to when it was originally announced in Genesis chapter 3. The third chapter of Genesis is the sad account of how the human race fell into sin. Adam and Eve, having been tempted by the serpent, desired to “be like God” (3:5), and therefore they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is interesting that, after the sevenfold refrain of “God saw that it was good” in Genesis chapter 1, that here “the woman saw that the tree was good” (3:6). She has taken the prerogative of the Creator and determined what the creation is good for. She, and Adam with her, has attempted to dethrone God and make herself like God.
The results are tragic. Adam and Eve; expecting illumination, immediately experience humiliation, seeing their nakedness. They fear God’s presence, and throw each other under the bus to avoid his wrath. The serpent, Eve, and Adam are cursed. Death enters the world. They are forbidden from reentering God’s paradise. Despite the darkness that shrouded that day, one beam of hope shone through – and this is where we come back to the topic of Christmas.
God promised that a special child would be born, who would defeat the serpent: “I will put enmity between you [i.e., the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
The promise of this offspring is fulfilled in Jesus. The whole account of Jesus’ birth to redeem mankind can be traced in (Luke 2:4-19).
This quick exploration into Genesis 3 reveals the real reason why we need Christmas. This holiday of holidays doesn’t exist because we need vacations, presents, and extra church services. Christmas exists because we have sinned. If Genesis chapter 3 didn’t happen we wouldn’t need Christmas. If we had a pure, true relationship with God, we wouldn’t need Christmas. If mankind had trusted God to determine what is good and evil, we wouldn’t need Christmas. But because Genesis 3 did happen, and because rebellion against God happens in our hearts every day, we need Christmas desperately. Matthew, in his account of Christ’s birth, wrote, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Friends; we need God to intervene in our lives; that is why He sent his Son to be born of a virgin by the power of his Spirit. Are you a sinner? Then you need Christmas. “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” 1 John 1:9 (NLT). This is what Christmas is all about.
Look at Christmas in a new way this year. Be intentional in remembering why you are cerebrating. This is the year to invite Jesus into your heart. The joy and peace you will receive will last all year as you look to God for all your needs to be met. You will then truly have a “Merry Christmas.”
The writer is founder and director of Wilsongs.
