The season of Christmas has always been filled of joy, cheerfulness, and excitement. The environment that we live in put up bright colorful lights with tons of decorations in the homes and malls. The excitement of what to receive on Christmas Day and what to give to others for people tend label that this is “the season of giving”. I truly love the air of smiles, laughter, and uplifting songs but I became to realize that we are not really giving the true “respect” to the meaning of Christmas, or the Birth of our Savior. So, I am going to be using 3 words to describe … the views of the meaning of Christmas. Contempt, Fanatic, and Respect.
Now if you look in the dictionary for the definition of Contempt, especially pertaining to Law, it is “willful disobedience to or open disrespect for the rules or orders of a court (contempt of court) or legislative body”. If you are ever in a Court before, like taking care of a traffic ticket, you noticed that the Court is usually very quiet, very authoritative, and usually the Judge is the one doing most of the talking. If someone in Court decides to be very friendly and started talking to those around them, maybe start sharing their food to others, or just smile and greet warmly to everyone, the Judge can charge that individual with “Contempt of Court”. Meaning that the Individual is not aware of what is going on around him/herself, or not giving the proper awareness and “respect” to the power of the Court. Obviously the individual did not do anything Malicious or Evil or committed any type of morally wrong action yet they can still be “charged” for inappropriate behavior.
Then if you look at the word Fanatic. It’s original Latin word Fanaticus meaning “mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god,” originally, “pertaining to a temple,” from fanum “temple,” related to festus “festive”. Thus if someone who is a “Fanatic”, they are senselessly devoted to carryout God’s plan or worshiping God without pertaining the actual needs of themselves or those around them. God gave us reason, a brain. For you to pray to God all day everyday and not getting a job to buy food to feed your family is a Fanatic. For you to help out the community through religious activities for the sake of God (feed the poor, teach at Church, plan Missionary Works) yet neglecting your own family needs like properly disciplining the child for bad behavior, or giving quality time to the spouse is a Fanatic. God wants you to serve him but not only in 1 area but in all areas of your life. You choose to serve God in a way that it makes sense. Like it make sense to why you choose to love an individual because you know that that person also returns the same love to you, meaning that they will not harm you, that they care about you, that they bring you happiness.
So if you look at the spectrum, one side is total disrespect towards God while the other is total senseless Faith. So then let’s take a look at the middle, which is Respect. If you dissect the word, “Re” means again, and “Spect” means to look again. Thus if you put the two words together, it means “to look again”.
Instead of looking Christmas in a way of total joy and disrespect towards Jesus but in a different perspective. We need to give Christmas a sense of more “respect’ and “honor”. We need to really “look again” on the value of Jesus’ Birth. If you think about it, God loved us so much that he decided to give away His Heavenly Son to become one of us so that he can pay the ultimate penalty, death, that we can live eternally with Him. We need to truly reflect of what is the meaning of Jesus’ Life and the suffering he had to go through for our sake.
That is why we put up the lights during Christmas season. We decorate the tree, the house, and the front yard because darkness represents death and sorrow, light represents life and hope. Jesus brings hope during the mist of our darkest days. That is why we use Evergreen Trees to decorate our home. For Evergreen Trees still retain its color and “life” even during the dead of winter. We give gifts to others because we want to share the love and joy of the Good News.
This is why we have “Advent Season” before Christmas Day. The once Jesus is born, we celebrate His Birth for Twelve Days long, not just 1 Day, to give “respect’ on how important this event means.
