Christmastime is here again

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

—Norman Vincent Peale

I love Christmas. It’s a magical time of year where we can be kids once more. Of course, we always get one of those people who have to make it all about themselves and say Christ wasn’t born on Christmas Day.

Some people need to make everything about themselves. I thought Christmas was about Jesus, not them. For the rest of us, we see Christmas as when God stepped down from heaven into a sinful world. To put it in a better way, Emmanuel, God with us.

Now why on Earth did God pick shepherds to play a key role in the birth of Christ? Shepherds were outcasts of Hebrew society. In fact, they were so unclean they were viewed as untrustworthy. They couldn’t even testify in court. We are talking about people who had bad personal hygiene and spent most of their lives out in the field with smelly sheep. No wonder they were detestable. Yet they were chosen to proclaim the birth of the Lord.

So what about St. Nick? He was just a myth, right? Absolutely not. He was the bishop of Myra in modern-day Turkey. Nicholas was a great man who loved Jesus. At the Council of Nicaea, where the church declared what the core beliefs of the faith were, Nicholas was so upset at another bishop for saying Jesus wasn’t God he walked up to him and slapped him. Nicholas was rich. After hearing about a girl who had to sell herself, Nicholas left a purse with gold at her window. Another one followed a few nights later.

Christmas is about Christ coming to us and meeting us where we are at. Let us spend time with our family and friends, give to others, and love like Jesus. Merry Christmas.

Kyle Snyder can be emailed at kylesnyder86@yahoo.com.