Picture a stable in Judea.
Picture a sacred, silent night.
And can you hear
The angels near
And see the star so bright?
Chorus
Picture the little baby Jesus.
Think of his life and words so dear.
Sing praise to him;
Remember him,
As you picture Christmas this year.
Picture the kind and gentle Joseph.
Picture the mother, Mary, fair.
And can you see
So rev'rently
The shepherds kneeling there?
ChorusIt's a really nice song. It could probably use a verse about wisemen, but it's good as it is, and it made me think a little. What do I picture when I think of Christmas? To be honest, the Nativity scene isn't the first thing that pops into my mind. When I picture Christmas, the first image that comes to my mind is a Christmas tree, covered in lights. Oddly, the tree in my mind has colored lights, while our tree has white ones, and there's snow outside in my mental image, though it never snows here. The first thing that comes to my mind is a traditional Christmas scene, not a manger scene. I'm not sure if there's even a star on the tree.
The world has departed pretty far from the original idea of Christmas, and it seems that I've been swept up in it. If my immediate mental image of Christmas has nothing to do with the Savior, I'm thinking about Christmas the wrong way. Christmas is, or used to be, all about celebrating the birth of Jesus. As a culture, we've integrated trees, lights, and snow as part of a traditional Christmas, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if our first thoughts about Christmas are "look at those pretty lights" or "what am I going to get everyone?", we may need to shift our focus a little, back toward the Savior. I'll admit (because I already did) that when I think about Christmas, my first thoughts aren't really centered on Jesus Christ. Maybe I need to look at a few more nativity scenes, with perhaps a few fewer colored lights nearby.
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