Don’t take the decorations down yet

While the commercial world is taking down Christmas decorations and marking them 75% off, we Christians are just beginning to celebrate the birth of our King, Jesus!

The liturgical season of Christmastide began Christmas Day, and lasts for 12 days (Yes, as in the “12 days of Christmas). Dec. 25 is the 1st day of Christmas. Dec. 26 is the 2nd day. And so on, until the 12th day of Christmas on Jan. 5, followed by the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.

Why take 12 days to celebrate? Because, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17). This is good news and worth celebrating… for days.

You see, Jesus could have come to judge the world. In fact, this is partly what we focus on in the season of Advent leading to Christmas: the fact that Jesus will return again some day to judge the world and it will be terrifying for those who have rejected His offer of grace and forgiveness. He will ensure justice is finally served for every sin ever committed, no matter how much time has passed. All the wrongs that have ever occurred will be made right. It’s really too much for us to fully understand or comprehend.

However, during Christmastide we celebrate the fact that this judgement is not God’s desire. His desire is for “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1Tim. 2:4). Therefore, God sent His son 2000 years ago, not to judge the world but to save it. In fact the name, Yeshua or Jesus, literally means “the Lord saves.”

And it gets even better. “[Jesus] came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (Jn. 1:11-14).

Jesus became human and in doing so He identified with ALL of humanity, not just the Jewish people from whom He was descended (though they are certainly included). Every person on the face of the earth now has the opportunity to become a child of God. Jesus’ fellow heirs for all eternity. And if you were wondering, that’s what we celebrate in Epiphany. Jesus’ coming not only to the Jewish people but to the gentiles, represented in our remembrance of the Magi who were not Jewish, but acknowledged Jesus as King!.

It is in this in-between time (between Jesus first coming and His second, and between Advent and Epiphany) that we celebrate Christmas for 12 days.

So don’t take the decorations down yet. There is much celebrating to be done!