Christmas Day with Emmaus Church Promo

Meditations on Christmas Traditions

The word “holiday” in English is exactly what you think it is – the combination of “holy” and “day.” This means that, at the very least, the Christmas holidays (and other holidays throughout the year) have the potential to be essential parts of our spiritual formation and sanctified personal growth. The Scripture, while clear that holidays and observances are not mandated because of the cross (Colossians 2), is FULL of “celebrations” and “festivals” and “feast days.” These “holy-days” were intended to remember something important that they had seen God do in their midst or commemorate who God was with a picture of his nature, and they celebrated with all that they had when the opportunity arose. Nehemiah’s excellent admonition that “The joy of the Lord is our strength” is directly tied to a celebration with food and generosity, and the future of the church as described in the book of Revelation is also full of feasts, celebrations, and joy.

Joy, and its active partner Celebration, are essential Christian virtues. It only takes a moment if we stop and reflect to see how many of our simple traditions can be helpful to us as a church this Christmas season.

 

Call to action: Even if you’re not a particularly “festive” person, typically, find a small thing today that you can really celebrate. Even if you’re not totally feeling it, put on that crazy sweater or sing that Christmas song with extra umph! We celebrate what’s important to us – so go all out!

Psalm 34:3, Psalm 118:24, Luke 15:10

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:3

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