As we are approaching Christmas it is important to see the beauty of the nightly light displays all over the neighborhood. Someone who has lived here in San Antonio longer than I made the observation that more of the displays now are in front of individual homes and fewer are seen on public buildings with the exception of stores. Even where displays exist today the celebration seems more subdued than I recall a few decades ago. It could just be me. Of course theme parks are glitzed up and this might enable us as a community to miss this subtle shift. Individuals are doing their things to the extent they feel like it and those who wish to pass may feel less civic pressure to do so.
I do sense, with all the polarizing politics swirling around us coming into a presidential election year, that we are all feeling trepidation this Christmas. In addition, even though personally I am not concerned about expressing my faith, when I tap into social media to gather news from the world beyond my sight, Christianity is increasingly under attack. There are risks to expressing faith in God and trust in Jesus that up to this generation in this particular country, did not overtly exist. Try telling the world you believe in Jesus on social media and see what happens. This is evidence that there has been a huge shift in my lifetime from a generally believing nation to one that chooses to do its own individual things. The current zeitgeist of our time is best described as polarizing extremes.
Now here is another personal opinion and observation. I believe that we are leaving the comfort of a kinder nation as the general population continues to move away from belief in a good God, the one displayed in the pageantry of lights every Christmas.
Of course there is a continued commercialization and secularization of this Holy-day, but I don’t mind this so much because it is a touchpoint. I don’t mind that some people only come to church at this time of year. At least they are coming, even if just to please an older relative they happen to be visiting.
And God reaches each one of us in mysterious ways. But let’s appreciate the weakness of darkness to the smallest candle of light and also remember from English classes we had to take in high school that darkness represents ignorance and lies. Light represents truth.
When the baby Jesus was born at night into this dark world, recall that it was heralded by a star. Something in the heavens had shifted. It wasn’t clear at first, but over time the good news was shared until eventually its truth lit up the world.