When Christmas is more about family than Jesus, we’ve missed the point …
Some of you didn’t like the headline of this post.
Even some “devout” Christians.
But the truth remains, if we have made Christmas to be more about family than it is about Jesus, we’ve missed the point.
We’re quick to agree that Christmas isn’t about getting gifts, it’s not about Santa Claus, it’s not about decorations or feasts or time off work or school … or anything else about the holiday season we enjoy.
But surely it’s got to be about family!
No, it isn’t.
Certainly it’s true that it’s a time shared with family and loved ones that we cherish and are precious memories. But there’s a single reason for Christmas — the celebration of God giving His Son to the world so that the world through Him might be saved. Christmas is “Immanuel, God with us!” If we make our families more important than that, then we have then made our family into an idol – something so many really have done.
There is a truth that so many have lost today: family IS important, but Jesus Christ is most important!
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” – Colossians 1:15-17 (NASB).
“He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else,” John 3:31.
To make Jesus Christ most important, at Christmas and every day, isn’t to diminish the importance of family; but to make family more important than Christ DOES diminish who Jesus is in our lives. Philip Yancey wrestled with this topic in his book, “Rumors of Another World”:
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The prize-winning Irish poet Evangeline Paterson sums up her life: “I was brought up in a Christian environment where, because God had to be given pre-eminence, nothing else was allowed to be important …”
Even such a clear truth can be misapplied and turned into a negative thing. Paterson discovered this distortion and corrected it, writing, “I have broken through to the position that because God exists, everything has significance.” Has the reality of Who God is made everything else in your life more meaningful?
It’s because of Jesus that we can rightly love and value our spouses, our children, our extended family, and the other “loved ones” in our lives. But when we begin to value family above Jesus, we’ve actually skewed our value system into something it should never be.
Have you made the mistake of making Christmas about family?
How DO you make Christmas about Jesus?
Scotty
December 18, 2020 at 7:59 pm
I completely agree. Family often becomes an idolat Christmas. As a believing Christian in a family of nominal Christians and agnostics I feel a big pressure to fit in with the western ‘culture’ of Christmas especially spending considerable amounts of time and money on presents and making sure I’m always present with family at Christmas time , come what may. Jesus is definitely pushed down the list of priorities. It feel a bit like Christmas has been hijacked. In long for it to be a time of celebration with my community of Christian brothers and sisters, and family as well of course if they’d like to join in: Eating, worshipping and praying together. In fact the opposite is often true for many of us. Quite often members of church congregations end up scattered as they travel to be with relatives who expect them to be present with them and we end up missing out on celebrating the true meaning of the festival
December 19, 2020 at 2:56 pm
I understand, and agree! Thank for your comment!