Christmas is here again

The Christmas Season with its calming and soul awakening waves is sweeping through the countries in the free world. It is a unique period and it is hard to miss its ardor, the reassuring tone, the herald of something stupendous in the air.

The carol, Noel, rends the air in department stores and hotels. Streets in some state capitals glitter with decorations.

Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Falomo Roundabout and Victoria Island, are a delight to behold in the night against the background of Lagos environmental beautification efforts with flowers and trees at Alexander, Bourdillon in Lagos. They all exude the enrapturing sweetness of Yuletide in Lagos.

What with carols and musical concerts heralding the currents of a gripping commemorative worship in thanksgiving that bows the spirit. What with the uplifting feeling of beholding exquisite beauty of greens and glitters, of shining stones, and leafy surroundings and you want to fly and hit the high Heavens.

In recent years, the celebration has been enmeshed in controversy on how right and appropriate it is to celebrate the Christmas Festival on 25 December, with some prominent clergymen dismissing its celebration as paganic and that it is demonic in origin—really very strong words.

For those who have been brought up from childhood to believe and experience the uniqueness of Christmas, and the accustomed all-pervading refreshing air, the reconditioning of the spirit that is the feature of the season, this must have come as a shock.

The bone of contention is not about the truth of the coming of the Lord, nor is it about the date of his Birth, but about Christmas as a Festival. A video is circulating in the social media in which the preacher told his bright-eyed, cheering and clapping congregation that it is Nimrod that is celebrated as Christmas and not the birthday of Christ.

The clergymen who disapprove of the celebration tie it to Saturnalia festival in Rome characterized by loose conduct, widespread indulgence in food and drinking, and condemnable aberration in human behaviour.

I am not keen on any controversy nor will I wish to enter into any debate on a spiritual matter of this nature. What is important for me is that Jesus Christ came, sent by His Father and His mission was to redeem us mankind erring in the wilderness through showing us the way to light and life through His living and unfathomable Teachings: Do this, it leads to joy and happiness and above all to eternal life; don’t do that, it leads to eternal damnation. For me, that is what is the most important.

The tidings of His Birth were revealed to shepherds on the field, shepherds who were close to Nature. Their lives were simple, not complicated at all, for a complicated life was bound to be closed to such high and stupendous revelations of the happening in the universe. The shepherds themselves, made clairaudient and clairvoyant, went down shaken, unable to bear the pressure of the greatness of the moment and the Event in the cosmos. And the words of the Angel came reassuringly: “Be not afraid.” And the tidings were broken to them.

Three kings generally referred to as Three Wise Men from the East, who were vast in astrology, knew something unique had happened. They saw an unusual Star, and followed it leading them to Bethlehem where the stellar appearance terminated and with its bright rays pointing to the stable of the infant Child God.

Years after the premature end of His ministration and departure from earthly life, and people began to be gripped by the recognition of the immeasurable Grace mankind had been mercifully granted to experience and hold for the nourishment of our souls, I want to believe a date was chosen in faint recollection of the approximate period the astrologers came to identify, bear witness to the Birth of the Lord and worship Him, and that period has become what we now celebrate as Christmas.

Even if the date is debatable, the gathering of more than four billion human beings in different parts of the world to give gratitude to the Most High deserves encouragement.

Just let us contemplate it for a moment: billions of human beings turning their gaze upwards to the Throne of Grace in Thanksgiving Worship, in worshipful adoration of His Holy Name.

The Blessings such is bound to draw from On High and pour into our world must be unquantifiable. It is a Day and period of reflection that the Saviour came in incomprehensible love to the region of darkness and dissension that the planet earth was and still is, and brought light and life.

It is a period of reflection on how much use of His Teachings we have used to cleanse our souls of dross and made our own by adjusting our lives accordingly.

As it has now been revealed in higher knowledge, there was rejoicing and jubilation in all spheres of existence; the elements were beside themselves, as they say in local parlance, bubbling in joyful activities, and service to the Lord coming. Angels accompanied Him to the planet earth.

Our gratitude, stripped of revelry, Santa Claus phenomenon and commercialism which the video preacher has rightly described as the “Feast of Foolishness” as well as our resolve to turn a new leaf, is by far more profitable than controversies and bickering over the day of celebration.

The right mode of celebration is in the recognition of the hope and assurance of eternal life the Birth of the Lord Christ portends if we do the Will of His Father. It is what should be our preoccupation. Come Monday, Christendom will come alive in the worship of God. Let us rejoice, Christmas is here again! Oh come all yee faithful….