I like Christmas.
Just not the way I used to.
Christmas, as we celebrate it today, wasn’t handed down neatly from the pages of Scripture. Much of what surrounds it was shaped centuries later, during the time of Constantine, when pagan winter festivals were repackaged and rebranded for a growing Christian empire.
That doesn’t make Christmas sinful.
But it does mean it wasn’t commanded.
And that distinction matters.
Scripture gives us appointed times — feasts with meaning, purpose, and precision. Purim. Passover. Shavuot. The Fall Feasts. These weren’t cultural conveniences. They were deliberate.
Christmas, by contrast, became a cultural celebration of a biblical event.
And that’s okay — as long as we’re honest about it.
What sometimes makes me wince is hearing well-meaning phrases like “Jesus is the reason for the season” repeated without context. The intent is good. The history… not so much.
If we actually slow down and study the timeline in Luke’s Gospel, something remarkable appears: the birth of Jesus aligns far more closely with the Feast of Tabernacles than with a winter holiday. God dwelling with man. The Word made flesh. Living among us.
That connection isn’t accidental.
It’s deeply biblical.
Some suggest His conception may have occurred around Hanukkah. Maybe. Maybe not. Scripture doesn’t say — and that’s important too. Not everything needs certainty to be meaningful.
What is clear is this: God keeps time deliberately.
So where does that leave Christmas?
For me, it leaves it as a voluntary pause.
A time to gather.
A time to be generous.
A time to reflect on the incarnation — God stepping into human history.
Not because the calendar demands it.
But because remembrance is still worthwhile.
We don’t have to reject Christmas to be biblically grounded.
We just don’t have to mythologize it either.
Celebrate it if you choose.
Skip it if you don’t.
But understand it.
That’s where clarity begins.
So wherever you land — loud celebration or quiet reflection — I hope this season gives you space to slow down, look closely, and remember what actually matters.
Merry Christmas.
— Wayne
