It's Christmas...again...

Every year...the songs are the same...the decorations are pretty much the same...the discounts are somewhat the same...

Someone asked me if I would go to church on Christmas Eve. I said no and she said...be careful of sinning... Heck, she is not even a Christ believer and dared to warn me about sinning by not going to church on Christmas eve? Anyway, I just smiled and said nothing...

About a week ago I went to a Christmas party at a famous bar in Shanghai. The MC asked us to write down the meaning of Christmas on a card which would be shared among all of us. I paused for a while and wonder...Christmas...hmm...I guess maybe it's a meaningful day...so many people celebrate it...I just don't know what it is to me...

Oh well, I could give standard answers such as...Christmas is the joyous time when the Light of the world was born in a manger that represented our filthy and dark hearts. The news was first given to the shepherds while the world was sleeping and ignorant because The Lord remembered and cared for the lowly ones. Even the so called "not God's people" caught His star and labored through dark and arduous journey to meet and worship Him...while the so called "God's people" only theorized about His birth but never lifted a finger to really seek Him (yeah well, they only lifted their fingers to turn the pages of their sacred book...but that did not equate to seeking Him)...and so on and so forth...

Sigh...all those standard answers that I could find through the books...I feel that I am not satisfied with them. I never mean that those answers are wrong...they are as true as the stars above...Yet my nature compels me to seek something different...something that could bring me to a new level of enlightenment...

Funny thing is...the Bible never commands Christ believers to remember His birth. The Bible only commands them to remember His death until He comes again...Then why would Christmas be celebrated so much more than the Passion and Passover?

You could hear this "interesting" conversation between a mother and her little child in a mall that has a nativity scene: Oh...oh...look at that...that is baby Jesus in a manger...that is Joseph His dad and that is Mary His mother...EXCUSE ME!!! the Bible never teaches Christ believers that Joseph was Jesus' father and Mary was His mother. Even Jesus Himself never called Mary "Mother", He called her "Woman"...They were only slaves of the Most High...earthen vessels like other faithfuls...ready to carry out responsibilities...Who are we to call Joseph His father and Mary His mother???...

I guess...I am sick of Christmas...

It has veiled the Creator as a harmless baby...so cute and innocent...so weak and dependent...

And maybe that is why the world celebrates Christmas more than Passion...since it is so much easier and acceptable to remember Him as a baby...instead of the conquering Warrior...

Sigh...

Maybe I am just being unfair here...After all, there would not be Passion without Christmas...

So still I say to you my friends and my readers...

Merry Christmas...
May you find the Christ of Christmas amidst shopping sale and glittering trees...

...I remember that You died and rose again...
...I remember that You will come again...