Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."
The meaning of Christmas: The first part of the word is Christ which is the translation of the word Messiah meaning the annointed one or saviour from the Christian perspective, and the second part of the the word Christmas is Mas which is derived from the Greek word Mass which means celebration. The two words put together have made a special day that is remembered and celebrated by Christians all over the wolrd. This sacred day 'Christmas' which takes place on the 25th of December is about the birth of a holy child named Jesus Christ or as Christians believe he was God incarnate. A God who loves his people so much that he came down to earth in the form of a human being and died for the sins of those people who have faith in him and the sacrifice he made to save all of humanity from their sins. So to honour Jesus and to commemorate the sacrifice he made, Christians celebrate Chistmas the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christmas carols are sung in Chrushes all over the world around this time of the year, again to honour Jesus, his mother Mary and his miraculous birth.
The Christmas carol I chose to talk about was 'Away in a Manger.' The lyrics of 'Away in a Manger' explain about the poor conditions Jesus was born in. It tells us about how calm and patient he was sleeping in the cold with nothing but hay for a crib to lay in and how he was surrounded around loud and noisy sheep but still 'no crying he made.' The carol tells us how different and unique Jesus was from any other baby and like all Christmas carols it specially emphasises on the divinity of Jesus and how he is lord and saviour.
After reading Philippians 2:1-7, it is very clear what the purpose of Christmas should be for the Christians, its not just about the presents or Santa, or the Chritmas tree but to come together in love and peace and to worship Jesus as Lord and Saviour of the universe. But the real question arises that, what type of a God comes to earth as a baby? And if the story of Jesus is true why would God choose this method of coming to his creation?
Well in my opinion in some ways it may seem like only a very loving generous and sympathetic God would do such a favour for his creation, putting himself through all the torture and dying on the Cross for our sins so that we may not perish or suffer. But at the same time this method seems very unjust, because what happened to all the people before the mercy of Jesus, Adam and his descendents? And there are still some people living on earth today who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ what happenes to them? If God is the one who created us he must know exactly what we are like and how we feel since he is the one who put those emotions into us. We never told him to put us on this earth nor did we ask for his permission to come to this earth, so therefore nothing actually belongs to us, even the bodies we live in are only ours temporarily because eventually the return is to our lord. Just like the first man was made from clay we will too be put into the ground and will be truned into clay. Then how? If God knows us better than we know ourselves why does he need to come down to earth and experience our life? Can God not forgive all with just a word? Or does he prefer some of his creations more than others, even if they do no good and only create mischief and corruption on earth? Is it fair that some suffer in this world and the next even if they do no wrong or evil and are better than some believers? Can the result for doing good ever be bad or the result for doing bad ever be good?
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