CHRISTMAS

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XX, Issue 6, 1 December 1929, Page 1

CHRISTMAS

How ofteiij as the Christmas season comes round, one hears it said that Christmas is the Children's Festival, and has very little significance m childless homes, or in' homes where the childhood of a few years back has merged into present manhood and womanhood. As with every statement that is reiterated often enough, a, busy hurried world. is inclined to accept it without troubling to consider very deeply ' its

truth or worth; and indeed on casual consideration how true such a statement would seem to be. With the passing of Santa Claus, and all the attendant excitement of Christmas Trees, stockings hung before fireplaces t bugle blowing, and all the other Christmas joys dear to the heart of childhood, it seems there is little left to keep burning our early enthusiasm for the Festival of bur Lord's birth. Yet the fact of that humble birth m Bethlehem 1900 years ago meang nothing less to the* -individual -

soul with the passing of the years j rather should it "ihe'eiii' more, for each year is one stepping stone nearer the great reckoning which the best of us could not dare to face unafraid, hut for the atonement of the sinless life of God m His Incarnation. Still there is no doubt that to many people each succeeding Christmastide loses a little more of the joyous enthusiasm of the youthful heart, until it may finally come to seem only a time of extra work* and worry with little, or at any rate very disproportionate compensating joy.

What then is to be our attitude to the Christmas Festival, so that year by year we may approach it with waxing rather than waning enthusiasm 5* Surely we-; have the answer m the song of the angels, "Glory to God m the highest; and on earth peace." Make the Godhead the centre of the festival; put God first, earthly and material satisfaction second ; let the Christ Child, not Santa Claus be the dominant personality m the hearts of our little ones. This does not mean that one should detract m anyway from the beautiful legendary figure that has won the heart of childhood for all time. But that the Christ child, whose- birth we; celebrate at Christmas, should be displaced m the children's minds by. a legendary figure, is surely something that calls for re-adjustment. As Wordsworth so aptly puts it. "The child is father to the mam," and the child who understands Christmas as essentially; Our -Lord'? i birthday, has a heritage of never failing Christmas joy which will increase, and not lessen, with the passing years. He leaves childish fancies behind; but the central figure around which those fancies were -grouped, still remains, and with each year becomes a dearer and more intimate friend. To the person who actually walks day by day with Jesus, Who reveals and gives Himself to each of us as we desire Him, the wonder of the Virgin Birth can never become a fact of little meaning. As our. love for the strong Saviour of the world grows there can not fail to be born a passionate adoration for the wee Babe of Bethlehem. So presently we find the excitements of Christmas shojpiug and cooking and house parties and picnics to be merely secondary considerations, while the culminating point of the Festival is the laying of the gifts of our love and service tit the foot of the manger cradle.