Saturday, December 20, 2025
Worth Celebrating
A young mother was frantically shuffling her two young children through the mall, trying to get her last few Christmas gifts. Her four-year-old daughter spotted an elaborate nativity set in the window of a home décor store and asked, “Mom, who are those two people and the baby in that barn?”
“That’s Mary, Joseph and Jesus at the first Christmas” she quickly explained.
“Where is Santa,” asked the girl, “isn’t Christmas about celebrating Santa and presents?”
That is when it dawned on the young mother that the celebrations of the season may have eclipsed the thing being celebrated. She had not taken time to explain the reason for this most-important celebration.
The true meaning of Christmas is important whether someone understands it or not, but it is only important to that person if they know the real story, so they can value it and celebrate it. Many people agree with the song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle that says: Christmas is “The most wonderful time of the year.” But is it possible to focus on the celebration and forget the real meaning? How much of this world-changing, life-changing story do you know? Here is what some studies revealed about Americans.
· In 2018 Lifeway Research found that only about 22% of adults said they could accurately retell the Nativity story from memory.
· An American Bible Society survey found that only 42% were able to correctly identify what the Bible says brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth–reporting for a census.
· A 2022 Ipsos poll reported three quarters of Americans agree that people have forgotten the real meaning of Christmas.
How is it that we can remember sports, movie or video-game details but can’t remember the most incredible event in history? This is how the prophet Isaiah foretold the birth of Jesus five hundred years before the Wise men saw His star: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Not only was that child born, but He lived a sinless life, performed many miracles, and started a movement that would change the world. He was canceled and killed by the elite of His day, but His Resurrection and Ascension proved that He was everything Isaiah prophesied, and those events changed the lives of Jesus’ followers to the point that they were willing to die as martyrs.
Believers who celebrate Christmas are celebrating the Incarnation – God becoming flesh. It is incredible! The Mighty God lived in a body. That is why Jesus was called the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man.” He came to identify with us. He came to redeem us. He came to take the keys of death, hell and the grave.
Is there anything more important or more amazing than that? He changed the world so drastically that today one hundred sixty-eight countries use the Gregorian calendar which measures years according to the birth of Jesus. More importantly, millions of people now have a personal relationship with God through the life that He lived through Christ. The true story of Christmas is worth celebrating because it has done more to change the world than any other story.
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