I feel like an evangelical writing this, but here goes anyway. The evangelical Christians often use a verse from Proverbs 18:21 'There is life and death in the power of the tongue' and I am beginning to think they are on to something. Christmas is huge over here - everybody wishes everybody else Merry Christmas! Unbelievable? No it's true - I am serious. It is not like SA or the USA where there is a conscious attempt to sanitise Christmas of Christ and you get wished Happy Holidays - or the talking heads on radio or TV nod sagely about remembering the real meaning of Christmas - you know that meaning: friends and family and helping the poor? I mean hello? The true meaning is that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. That is the real meaning. The name Jesus Christ almost jars today when spoken aloud as Christians are shamed into silence. One of the only ways nowadays, to identify the Christian greeting is when Christians make a point of wishing each other a Blessed Christmas to distinguish their greeting from the drunken spectacle that often accompanies slurred Merry Chrishmasses! at office parties or corporate marketing blurbs indistinguishable really from any other annual sale except in its sheer scale. That's why I like Aus. People here, by and large, have kept and honour it as a Christian Feast. It is refreshing and whatever their other faults, demonstrative of the respect that they have for their own heritage and faith history and not driven by the PC madness that only respects faiths other than Christianity - a habit that has been driven by an atheistic media and is actually getting a little bit old.
May you and those you love, have a very Blessed and Holy Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment