Today, on Christmas Eve, I was pondering why people say "Merry Christmas". After thinking on it a while, I came up with several possible reasons. The first, as always, is that people have a genuine desire for others to enjoy the festivities of this time of year, and they truly want others to know the "reason for the season"...meaning to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Another reason might be that "Merry Christmas" is aesthetically pleasing to the ear. For example, happy holidays, happy Halloween, happy Hanukkah are all alliterations and Happy Christmas just doesn't have the same phonetic awareness as Merry Christmas does. The "M"s have a more pleasing sound. Another possible reason would be a play on words...like Mary Christmas, giving the allusion that Jesus' mother, Mary, should be given some kudos for giving birth to the world's savior. Don't get me wrong, I love Jesus and constantly think about His role in my life and where I would be if I didn't know Him. He is and always has been the reason for every season. I was just wondering about the people in our nation and whether "Merry Christmas" had the same meaning for them as it does for me.
I was reminded of a story I heard when I was kid. I can't remember the whole story or even where I was when I heard it, but for some reason it stuck with me and the meaning becomes more clear each and every year. Maybe you have heard it too...
There once was a great and mighty king. This king had only one heir to the throne and the only son that would ever be born to this king. So, the king took the precious baby boy to live among commoners. The twist is, that this great and mighty king was also very intelligent and wouldn't tell the commoners which of the children among them was the young prince. The commoners had several meetings to try to decide which of the children should be treated as a prince and were never able to figure it out, so they were forced to treat all the children as if they would one day grow up and become kings.
As a kid myself, when I heard it, thought this worked out perfectly for all the children. None of them would ever be hungry or cold. Then as I got older, I thought it worked out best for the adults too. I think if the adults in the community of commoners were forced to treat every child as kings, then those children would grow up and treat the next generation as kings too. If no one knew who the next king was going to be, then everyone would be treated as royalty. Tempers would remain in tact, fears would be alleviated, feelings could be shared easily and trust would be introduced back into a community of commoners, that would then turn into a community of kings.
Anyway - back to Christmas. I think the story and Christmas go hand in hand. God placed his one and only heir amongst a world of commoners. I don't think those commoners did a very good job of treating each other like kings, but when that precious baby boy grew up to be THE King, He sacrificed his Earthly Kingdom to rule in the greatest Kingdom of Heaven. I would imagine that He still places young princes and princesses in our midst and is fervently hoping we will treat each other as royalty in His name. And in doing so, saying "Merry Christmas" might actually mean for us to let each other know that we are His young royalty and will make an effort to treat each other as such.
So,,,,, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all the young princes and princesses out there and may your HOLYday season be bright and blessed.
