Christmas In Townsend

Although lights, trees, cookies and fun with family are all great, it is easy in today’s world to forget the reason we celebrate Christmas. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus, not the arrival of Santa, or the receiving of gifts. As Dr. Seuss demonstrates in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Christmas is much more than a commercial holiday.

“It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags … the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

So next time you are waiting in line at a “black friday” sale, driving yourself insane trying to ready your house for Christmas, or even watching this light display; remember that Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season. It is for the celebration of the birth of Christ that this display exists, an attempt to glorify God with technology and light. My hope is that it also allows viewers to realize the true meaning of Christmas.

And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

-Luke 2:4-14

In my opinion a tasteful, modern spin on the Nativity story