Think of Christmas as a birthday party for Jesus

I love this time of year. It is a time of Christmas songs crowding the radio and the smell of goodies baking.

One's body is exhilarated by the rich chill in the air coupled with the warmth of an inviting home. Christmas time includes the exchange of gifts, sleeping in, enormous meals, and gatherings with family and friends with no agenda but conversation and football.

I even like festive TV commercials - excluding the ones involving diamonds, perfumes or lizards.

There is something deeply warm and beautiful about the way we Americans do Christmas. At the same time, I wonder if we really get what we are celebrating.

Notice the word "Christmas." It literally means, "Christ's Mass." Breaking the word down like this, gives us a first clue about what this holiday is about.

The first part of the word is, of course, "Christ." The word Christ means "messiah" or, for the Jewish folks living 2000 years ago in Israel, "the one who is going to save us from these monsters (the Romans) who have conquered us and make our lives miserable."

The Christian New Testament identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (Matthew 1:1). We therefore call Him Jesus Christ.

Now this does not mean that Jesus' last name is Christ! It is not like Jesus Johnson or something like that. Christ describes Jesus. He is the Christ, the one who is going to save the whole world (Luke 2:11).

The One who is to save the whole world was born over 2000 years ago in a little town like Royal City in the tiny country of Israel (Luke 2:1-7). He was born in a barn - a shed for animals - because the Holiday Inn Express was completely out of rooms that night.

Not really the dramatic "Superman" kind of entrance into the world you would expect from a Christ.

The other part of the word, "Christmas," is "mas". This is a shortened version of "Mass." A Mass, in the Catholic tradition of the Middle Ages, was "a religious feast day (held) in honor of a specific person" (American Heritage Dictionary).

The specific person in this case is Jesus.

The other critical element to add here is that Christmas is the religious feast day that specifically recognizes the importance of Jesus' birth.

So Christmas was originally established so that people who believed in such things could throw a big party to celebrate the holy moment when Jesus, the supposed Christ of the world, was born. That was the idea behind Christmas.

But I'm wondering if we should care why we celebrate Christmas. Does it really matter?

Christmas is fun. Family is usually at the center of it. I get presents. Maybe it's enough to participate and not ask questions - like the Japanese.

A Wikipedia article reminded me that Christmas has been adopted as a celebration in Japan even though the vast majority of people are not Christian nor do they care that the holiday was founded to honor Christ.

Intentionally celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ does matter for a person who is being drawn by God into faith. It indicates that such a person understands that God did something with Jesus' birth that had been planned since the beginning of time, that never happened before, and that will never happen again: God sent His Son to earth in the flesh to save us (Hebrews 2:14).

The one drawn into faith also somehow knows that Jesus brought gifts when He came to earth and gave them to anyone who would accept them. These are a few of the gifts Jesus has set underneath the tree for us: hope, life, forgiveness, and salvation.

Hope is trust that quenches fears. Life is imperturbable peace and joy. Forgiveness is receiving relief from guilt over the bad things we have done in the past. Salvation is being rescued from a very nasty after-life - hell - by Jesus.

These are the gifts Jesus brings at Christmas. In light of these gifts and the momentous occasion of Jesus' birth, it seems to me that a celebration is indeed in order.