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December 15, 2018I doubt there is anyone who does not look forward to Christmas. Christmas is a wonderful time to exchange gifts, to organize family gatherings, and to tell your loved ones, “I love you.” It is not uncommon to say, “Merry Christmas” to strangers bumped into in the street, to relatives, or to the cashier at Walmart. All of this may be true, but it is not Christmas yet. Sure, the stores are all well-decorated and Santa seems to be everywhere, However, Christmas has not arrived yet, and Christmas is not about Santa Claus.
In order to remind people that Christmas is about God becoming man, we organize a Christmas Concert every year. This year it took place on December 15 th. The theme of the concert was happiness: the happiness that flows from the certainty that we are loved by God to such an extreme that He, the Immortal and the All-Powerful, has become mortal and vulnerable in the body of a baby. God has become approachable. Who would ever be scared of a baby?
Beautiful songs, musical pieces played on piano, violin, and other instruments, and a simple play helped our listeners experience the joy of Christmas. The play was about Braion, a Greek servant who narrated his conversion to a great emperor. He told him how his encounter with the baby Jesus had inspired him to hand himself over to the authorities for a crime he had committed and wrongly blamed on his friend. Even though he had lost his freedom, He did what was right, and this brought him happiness.
Although it feels like Christmas, Christmas has not arrived yet; there is still time to reflect on this great mystery. God becomes man in order to save us. Let us prepare our hearts to receive Him this 25 th of December. The first time He came, He was born in a stable, where animals live. This Christmas, will your heart let Him in?