This Christmas season, I am aghast at the way our American freedoms have eroded right before our eyes. It becomes apparent in such seemingly innocuous phrases as “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings.” Once, these seemed to be merely bland expressions of general yuletide goodwill, but now when I hear those salutations, I feel the icy fingers of doom crawling up my spine. There is a sinister spirit in this country today that seeks to supplant all that is true, right, noble and holy about Christmas and twist it into a vulgar counterfeit.
I had a customer actually come to me last week, look over her shoulder, then whisper, “I know I shouldn’t say this, but Merry Christmas.” I was aghast. She was joking, but only a little. How, exactly, is the very mention of the word “Christmas” so offensive to the delicate public psyche that it is anathema to even speak it aloud? Could it be that the connotations of sin, accountability, sacrifice and eternal life that go hand-in-hand with Christmas that make a big-mouthed minority squirm? And so how dare we speak it!
We may still have a freedom of sorts to speak of Jesus, but that freedom is eroding fast. Ten years ago these things would never have been believed, and yet today we scarcely seem to notice them as we busily shop until we drop and prepare for a season of festivity and holiday cheer.
I heard a story on a radio show last week as I went home from work, and I looked it up to see if it was true, and it was. The word “Merry” in Old English did not mean “cheerful, happy or bright” in those days. The original meaning of that word was “mighty” or “strong.” This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Merry Christmas.” Do not allow the world to push your celebration of Christmas into the closed confines of your home. Do not allow the secularists to intimidate you into diluting the true meaning of Christmas until it is nothing but presents, red ribbons, sleigh bells and pretty lights, all nice but meaningless and frivolous in the absence of Christ.
The Peace on Earth proclaimed by the angels long years ago was not that fuzzy, ethereal feeling of gushy love that is promoted mindlessly as Christmas today, if it is promoted at all. The Peace of God is a violent work of love wherein God sacrificed His precious Son for each member of mankind, so that all who would trust in Jesus would live eternally. That is the Peace of which they spoke. And the birth of the Prince of Peace is the very reason we celebrate Christmas to this day.
And so I say, may God restore the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts and in our lives. May we walk, live, breathe and proclaim the true meaning of Christmas to all within shouting distance, while we still have the freedom to speak our faith publicly. And may God make Christmas mighty to us all.
Dondi MacNair
Oak Harbor
