In my work life, I am getting ready to switch gears. I manage two seasonal businesses. The first one is a spring and summer tourist attraction. It runs generally from March through October. We have two last hurrahs: Labor Day and the first two weeks of October. The second business is a drive-through Christmas light display, open November 1-January 1. I’m already preparing for the Christmas season and lining up things for the opening. So, I am thinking of Christmas.
For the drive-through Christmas light display, we have constructed a nativity scene with narration. The Christmas story will be synchronized with lights. Cheesy? Perhaps. Necessary? If I can compel any portion of the tens of thousands of folks who will drive through our display to stop and listen to the true story of Christmas (the birth of Jesus), then, yes, it is necessary.
Last year, I mentioned to the man who built our displays that I wanted a cross behind the nativity scene. I got it this year. Next year, I will add an empty tomb with the stone rolled away. But for now, a cross is sufficient to remind people that, while Christmas may be the largest celebration on the Christian calendar, Christmas is but a hollow birthday party without Easter.
Paul put it this way to Timothy…
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…
1 Timothy 2:5-6a
The Greatest Gift that God gave to man is not just the birth of Jesus, rather it is the birth, sinless life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as a ransom for all.
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