I read a news article today about a department store in the UK being banned by the city council from playing Christmas carols as the usual accompaniment for its Christmas window displays because the music constitutes "noise pollution".
My first reaction was: these people have totally lost the plot. How can Christmas music be classified as noise pollution? What about all the tuneless and meaningless stuff played in shopping centres the rest of the year?
Then again, Christmas isn't about carols or Santa or presents, is it. Carols are just part of a familiar association with Christmas for some of us, part of the annual holiday festivities we are used to.
The real Christmas story was hardly festive. It was a drama filled with murder, madness, ego, conspiracy, miracles and more twists than any modern-day thriller. There's nothing innocent or cosy about it.
And that is the true miracle: the Son of God came to earth as a human baby.
He placed Himself at the mercy of two rural teenagers, chose to be born in a cold, smelly manger where He could easily have been trod upon by a cow or a horse.
There were no welcome announcements, no midwives or delighted grandparents to witness His birth, only a handful of illiterate shepherds, a heavenly chorus and three foreigners who followed a star.
And yet the impact of His earthly life was such as to divide our concept of time into two - Before Christ (B.C.) and After Christ (A.D.).
No comments:
Post a Comment