It’s important not to overlook the real story of Christmas

Most of us enjoy this festive time of year, but are we becoming more secular and agnostic regarding the Christmas season? For many with an 'atheistic' view of Christmas, it is presents and parties, tinsel and turkey, banqueting and booze.

Many are prepared to tolerate a 'sprinkling' of religion provided the festive season isn't exclusively focused on the Biblical events of that first Christmas.

Of course, in this world of political correctness it would be considered ill-mannered or bad taste to offend those from different faiths or none by sending greeting cards depicting 'The Christmas Story'. Far better to send sentiments of 'Happy Holidays' with a robin in the snow, or 'Winter Wishes'.

And is this Christmas story just a story, promoted by well meaning folk to cheer us amid the gloom of 'the bleak mid-winter'? And what is fact or falsehood? The little drummer boy, sung and adored by many, is not mentioned in the Gospels. But what of the donkey Mary rode from Nazareth to Bethlehem? No donkey appears in the Biblical account. Mary and Joseph probably walked.

And the three kings who followed the star to the manger to greet the new born baby Jesus -- incorrect on all counts. They weren't kings but magi (from the Greek word, magol 'wise men') -- and we don't even know how many of them brought the three gifts as they stopped at Mary and Joseph's house in Bethlehem when Jesus was a child (possibly as old as two years). And was our Lord born on December 25? We don't know.

But none of this should detract from the truth of the Gospel message encompassed in this beautiful Christmas story -- that of a virgin birth of God's only son, who by his life, work, witness and death on a cross provides us with the lasting gift of salvation for those who just believe. So this December 25 will it be just another 'Merry Xmas' for you and yours or, perhaps for the very first time, a special, meaningful, wonderful, peaceful and deeply significant 'Happy CHRISTmas'? source>>>

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