Note: This was meant to be the last page (and it will be), but I kind of just had to write this part before I finished the rest of the story.
While all of these festivities were fun, those of us who are Christians must not forget the true reason why we celebrate Christmas. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was born from the virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem. Unlike every other religion back in those days, Christ was not born into lavishness and wealth. Barely anyone even knew He had been born. When He grew up and began to preach, perform miracles, and declare to the people that He was God in the flesh, He was hated by the vast majority of those who claimed to worship the same God Christ was. In fact, the Pharisees and Gentiles hated Him so much, that they nailed Him to a cross, beaten and bloodied with a crown of thorns on his head, where He suffered and then died, which deeply terrified the Disciples who thought their Savior would never die.
But, He didn't stay dead forever. Three days later, two women witnessed Christ standing outside of His empty tomb, Who then told the two women to spread the good news despite the fact that back then, anyone who dared to even mutter Christ's name was subject to the same torturous death as He was. But, despite this, the two fearless woman set out to spread the good news to the terrified Christians and Christ's twelve disciples, who were all in hiding, just before Christ Himself appeared to those same people, who were all later martyred and/or exiled for spreading the Gospel.
The birth, death, and resurrection of Christ all represent the moment humans were reconciled with God, after the sin of Adam and Eve, which represented the separation between God and man. No longer was man separated from God, for He had come back in the flesh to offer the free gift of salvation to the world. Since the night Christ was born, we've been living in a new Eden, no longer separated from God and sentenced to permanent death. Our sins, past, present, and future have all been forgiven and forgotten. God is no longer "confined" to a gilded temple guarded by high priests. Anyone and everyone can pray directly to God, and He will hear them all.
The Lord's prayer suddenly comes to mind:
Our Father Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven..."
That last phrase, "On Earth as it is in Heaven" never fails to send chills throughout my body, and strike me with inexplicable awe and fear for the Creator of all things. I once heard in a sermon that since God lives outside of time, He experiences all things at the same exact time, meaning (in the best earthly terms that I can come up with), we're already "in heaven" to to speak, even though our fleshy bodies are currently still alive and suffering in sin on Earth. In God's realm, there is no such thing as "yesterday" or "tomorrow", for both are occurring together at the same "time", along with everything else that we perceive as history and the future.
Now, what does this have to do with Christmas, you might ask? Well, I like to think that Christ has simultaneously been born, crucified, and resurrected everyday, including on Christmas and Easter. I like to try (and pretty much fail) to imagine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is standing before me every second of everyday, including when I say my Christmas prayers, and especially when I feel His presence; a presence so strong and loving it has brought me to tears and forced me to stop doing whatever I was doing, leaving me trembling and awe-struck. If God hadn't returned to Earth in the flesh, neither myself or anyone else besides the prophets of the Old Testament would be able to revel in the overwhelming presence of the Lord.
Yet, here I am, feeling His presence as I type this, trying (and failing) to put the true Spirit of Christmas into words.
This is the reason why we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the fact that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, and whoever shall believe in Him shall have eternal life, no questions asked (okay, I added that last part in, but it's true. See Hebrews 8:12 for details).
