Nowadays it is hard not to notice that the true meaning of Christmas tends to get buried in the clatter and glitter of the ever-expanding commercial explosion that occurs every year at Christmas time.
As the Christmas season unfolds, shopping, feasting, drinking, dancing and exchanging of gifts, along with Santa Claus and Rudolph take center stage in many people’s lives. This non-religious surge diverts attention away from the real reason why we choose to celebrate Christmas at all.
There is clear evident that the frenzied commercial activities at the time of the year tend to saturate many people’s senses and harden their hearts. In a world choked with greed and vice, it is easy to lose sight of the true spiritual importance of Christmas – that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, conquered death and is alive again.
That is why the true meaning of Christmas is found in our recognition and expression of the importance of family – our own families, the families of our relatives, friends and neighbours, and our entire human family.
What matters is not shopping and partying until you drop, or showing your face in church or lustily singing a few old hymns. What matters is that the Christmas gifts and gestures goodwill genuinely reflect the emotions in our hearts and that these should be the feelings towards each other that Christ commands and expect us to have.
But our flawed human nature does not permit us to express genuine love for each other all the time, which is why in other to embrace the true meaning of Christmas we need to reflect on the birth of Christ and reflect on the purity of His love and try our utmost best to live up to His example, even if it is only during the Christmas Holidays.
