Linus Christmas Monologue
from Peanuts-A Charlie Brown Christmas. Linus tells us ”what Christmas is all about”.
Even though people around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25, that was probably not the actual day on which Jesus was born. Many scholars believe that Jesus was more likely to have been born in September.
But the Christian celebration of Christmas is not about getting the date right. No one really knows the actual date. The celebration is about the fact that God loved humanity so much that he sent his Son in the flesh as one of us for our salvation.
In Matthew 1:23, the child Jesus is called, “God with us.”
In Mark 1:1, Jesus is called the Son of God.
In Luke 2:32, Jesus is called a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to the people of Israel.
In John 1:4, Jesus is called the life that was the light of men.
Christmas is about God’s love for us. It is about God’s undying commitment to us. It is
about God becoming one of us and drawing us into himself. It is about Jesus
sharing with us his perfect relationship with the Father, as the Father’s beloved Son.
“For God so loved the world,” John 3:16-17, tells us, “that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
And Christmas is about hope:
John 1: 9-13 says, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:9-13 NIV).
May this Christmas season be a wonderful time of joy in which we remember and celebrate what the birth of Jesus Christ means for all the world.
God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas
by: Scott Cairns
publisher: Paraclete Press (MA), published: 2007-10-31
ASIN: B002ZNJX2Q
sales rank: 200200
price: $11.98 (new), $15.86 (used)
God with us. This is the meaning of the Incarnation. This is the meaning of Christmas.
When we cut through all of the sentiment and marketing to the spiritual richness and vitality of Christmas, we not only discover who God is, but who we are as human beings.
When we become adults, and the wide-eyed wonder of childhood has passed, we need to replace what was once magical with something much more meaningful.
Now is the time to put first things first, and seek silence, if only for a few precious minutes a day. Now, ever more intently, we are to watch and listen for God.
God With Us is a companion for those who want to experience Christmas as the early Christians once did, set in the larger context of Advent and Epiphany. Through daily meditations, scripture, prayer, illuminating history and fine art, we experience what saints have glimpsed through the ages – the wonder of God made flesh.
