Where did we go wrong? I took my family out last night to look at Christmas lights around Evansville, something I used to do as a kid with my parents. As we were driving, I began to become more and more cynical about the entire experience. What have we done to the birth of our Savior?

Earlier this year I read a book by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper entitled Jim and Casper Go To Church. The book was filled with wonderful insights as a retired pastor took an atheist on a grand tour of churches big and small across the U.S. What impacted me most was at the end of most visits, as the two men were recollecting on their shared experience, Matt (the atheist) would often say, “Surely this is not what Jesus intended for his church to be.” And sadly I am feeling the same way about Christmas this year as well.

I have caught myself asking over and over again, “Surely this is not the mockery God intended for us to make of His son’s birth!” Part of me can’t help but be sickened by the ridiculousness of our societies obsession with Santa, but unlike years past, it is the “Circus” as a whole that we have made of Christmas that has me really puzzled this year. Unlike any other world religion, our most holy of days in the Christian faith have been secularized and molded into something that is completely unrecognizable from their intended purpose or meaning.

I just read John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas, a few weeks back, and I couldn’t help but cheer on the main characters in the novel as they pushed against the tide of conformity in the earlier parts of the book. And it is not as if I want to skip Christmas altogether, what I am really hoping is simply to find Christmas once again.

God bless you all. May you find the beauty, majesty and wonder that was birthed through a tiny, helpless little child that would forever change our lives for eternity this Christmas season.

December 23, 2009 <> Michael Warneke

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