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By Hank Walker | Pastor at Friendship Baptist Church

I have to admit that as I see Christmas ads on television and watch friends post pictures of their pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorations on social media, I want to summon my inner-Scrooge and offer a hearty BAH HUMBUG!

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Christmas! I love the prospect of time off with family. I love the Advent narrative in Luke. I love that I will worship with my church family on Christmas Eve this year. I love to sing Christmas hymns extolling the majesty of a Savior who came into this sinful world as a baby. I love to contemplate the return of this same Savior—not as a baby, but as a King! I love to meditate on the kind of divine love that compelled God to put on flesh and condescend to this world, living a perfect life under the burden of the Law—that we were incapable of obeying—reconciling to the Father all those who repent, placing their faith in the Son.

What I do not love—A WHOLE LOT—is that we tend to take our cues for how to celebrate Christmas from Madison Avenue and not from Scripture! Shouldn’t it bother us just a little that Christmas is a holiday that can now be celebrated with no thought at all—or with only a passing thought—of the Savior for whom it was named? It seems correct to say that Christmas, as it should be, has been LOST to the “lost.” That is, people who don’t know Jesus have created a multi-billion-dollar annual bizarre with which to bury the majesty of a Savior who came as the ultimate gift to this world

The good news is that a Christmas that has been lost can also be found!

It can be found in reading and meditating on the Word. It can be found in praise offered to the King for His greatest gift—the gracious gift of salvation! It can be found in loving God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength—and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Finally, it can be found in fulfilling the Great Commission—making sure that our lost friends, neighbors, and family know that there is hope in Christ that transcends the silly commercialism of what Christmas has come to be for them.

Merry CHRISTmas, y’all

Soli Deo Gloria