The 12 Days of Christmas: Day 10, Jesus is the Reason

Beneath all the layers of Christmas, the lights, the gifts, the hustle and bustle and Silver Bells, lies the true meaning of Christmas: God’s greatest gift to humanity, his own Son.  My 12 Days of Christmas series wouldn’t be complete without a reminder that Christmas, at its’ most elemental, is about Jesus.  Somehow, bringing the focus back to Him puts all the other folderol in perspective.  Christmas is about a very simple event, the birth of the Saviour.

As a parent, one of my goals for my family at this time of year is keeping a balance between the true meaning of Christmas and the highly marketed secular version of Christmas.  In order for that to happen, I have to purposefully plan events that make it so.

For example, for the past two weeks, my kids have been using traditional Christmas carols for their daily copywork in order to learn the lyrics.  I had become pretty disgusted that they knew the words to, “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree,” but had never even heard, ‘”O Little Town of Bethlehem”!  When the kids were younger, we baked a small birthday cake for Jesus, lit a candle, and sang “Happy Birthday”.  Every year we attend our church’s Christmas Eve candlelight service.  We had to take the candle away from my daughter a few years back when she nearly caught my husband’s sweater on fire, but even at four years old, the sight of the darkened church filled with candlelight and a chorus of, “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” took her breath away.

What I love about bringing the focus back to the birth of Jesus is its’ simplicity.  A carol, a candle, a few verses from the second chapter in the book of Luke all add up to a beautifully quiet moment filled with meaning and reflection on what is most important.

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