“When I look at you, suddenly, everything is fine again. Your peacefulness, innocence and unconditional love remind me of the beauty this life holds”
Christmas in its core is the celebration of Jesus‘ birth, an important prophet of our history or the “incarnation of God”, if you believe it to be so. A famous representation of this moment is Mary and Joseph holding baby Jesus in a stall in Nazareth, surrounded by animals. Why do we celebrate Jesus‘ birth? Well, one might think that from a religious point of view, it‘s a celebration of how Jesus came to life to pass on God‘s message to the citizens of Israel and the rest of the world; simply remembering Jesus, the start of his life and his lessons that later would change the minds of millions of people.
I was triggered to think about the celebration of Jesus‘ birth in a different way. There is great controversy about the actual date of Jesus’ birth. Whether he was really born on the 24th of December or not – I believe that, in the end, it doesn’t really matter. What if Christmas, the celebration of Jesus‘ birth, is simply there to remind us about the beauty of births in general? The beauty of that moment in which a new human being is given life on this planet Earth. If you think about it, it‘s a miracle. Moments like these remind us that miracles do happen in life, we just have to recognize them for what they are, which requires us to not take things for granted. If we start thinking about how natural processes work in this world without human interference, or when we start thinking about certain events in our life that were very unlikely to happen but somehow did happen and thus changed everything, we are not far from understanding what miracles are.
Christmas might also remind us of the beauty of life in itself, not only the beauty of giving birth. This time of the year, we fill the darkness with light, the cold with warmth. And thus, Christmas might be about celebrating the positive over the negative, the beautiful over the horrible events and acts in this world. I believe that non-Christian and even non-religious people have come to celebrate Christmas because it shares this universal message of beauty, love and light. Families use this day to come together, spend time together, share a meal and give each other gifts. I think it is important to have one day where nobody can make an excuses about meeting up and spending time together. It‘s about remembering where we come from, it‘s about sharing what we have and it doesn‘t matter if it‘s with a big family or a small one. If it‘s 2, 3 or 20 people. The act stays the same.
This day might be hard for some people because society has given Christmas a specific image, the image of a big family coming together, everyone is happy, sharing a big dinner and giving each other presents. However, not everyone can be with their family on this day. And not everyone has a big family either. This day could, instead of bringing joy, make people think that they are lacking something if they do not fulfill that societal image of Christmas. But, we shouldn‘t think about that which we are lacking. We shouldn‘t try to fulfill that Christmas image that society has spread and that is somehow locked in our minds. Instead, we should think about the things we have and be grateful for that. Why embitter our day thinking about things we can not change right now, why mess up our day thinking about things we don‘t have when we can be grateful about the things we have? We should be grateful because our life might be someone else’s wish in this world. Coming back to the meaning of Christmas – however we spend it, let us not forget the miracles and the beauty this life has to offer. Let us not forget to be grateful for what we have. And let us not forget the people who really don‘t have something, who really are in need.
