Let's just buy presents, wish each other happy holidays and that's it? If you really want to know the true meaning of Christmas, open your heart, get out of the box and glimpse the reality of an event that has marked the history of mankind and can change yours forever.
"A date celebrated for millennia by pagan cultures," say the skeptics, but even they recognize that it was localized. The holiday celebrated by billions around the world called Christmas has its origins in the commemoration of the birth of Christ, the anointed one awaited and announced by the ancient prophets.
The word Christmas comes from the archaic English Cristes Moesse, meaning "Christ's Mass or Festival", in Spanish the name is "Navidad" and Portuguese "Natal" comes from the Latin nativitas and means birth. In turn, it comes from the verb to be born. As you all know, this word refers to a historical event that changed the course of humanity: the birth of Jesus.
In the current calendar, this event is celebrated on December 25, but that doesn't mean that the date chosen corresponds exactly to the day of his birth.
The main purpose of celebrating Christmas is the festive remembrance of the day when the one promised since the beginning of humanity arrived.
The first announcement of the prophecy about the one who would be born to break the bond with evil in which all of humanity was trapped in Genesis
"(...) for he [the woman's offspring] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel". Genesis 3.15b
Another prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah around 740--680. A C.
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
The prophet Micah as well wrote:
"But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, though small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come to me one who will be ruler over Israel. His origins are in the distant past, in ancient times."
- Micah 5:2
And teh book of psalm
You said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I swore to my servant David:
'I will establish your line forever, and I will establish your throne throughout all generations' ".
- Psalm 89:3-4
These are just some of many prophecies that a redeemer would be born at a specific time to establish the beginning of a Kingdom, open access to God and through the sacrifice of his life pay what eternal justice demanded of humans: a debt that could never be paid by humanity, but that by becoming one of us, the Holy and Perfect One, he would be able to do so.
The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of the arrival of the promise made generations ago, from the very beginning, the promise of the savior.
Some have questioned how a king is born in a manger, in such a humble way? This is exactly how God chose for his son to come into the world, to challenge the pride inherent in our human condition.
We are the fruit of a fallen lineage (children of Adam and Eve) who, despite being debtors, are still arrogant, but whoever believes in him, despite the humble way he was born, believes that he was crucified in our place and rose again, all of whom by faith become part of the new lineage, and with his supernatural power now working in our lives, we can live like him, copying his character and attitudes.
For these reason, Shepherd pastors heard from a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
We celebrate Christmas in the sense of celebrating the arrival of the promise, the promise of our Savior!
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