A Nativity by the great Sandro Botticelli
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I often consider the question in my mind of which holiday I regard as the most important, Christmas or Easter.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m inclined, on the whole, toward Easter, because it commemorates two of the most fundamentally important events in both the divine plan and human history: the Atonement of Jesus Christ and his Resurrection.\u00a0 If those two events had not occurred, Christmas would be of no real significance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the other hand, of course, if Christmas had not happened \u2014 if the divine Son had not entered into our world and taken our flesh upon him \u2014 neither the Atonement nor the Resurrection would have occurred.\u00a0 So, probably, it\u2019s pretty well pointless to wonder whether to value Easter over Christmas or Christmas over Easter.\u00a0 They are, as it were, a package deal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I call your attention here to the first verses of the gospel of John, which I think should be taken as something of a hristmas story, along with Matthew 1-2 and Luke 2.\u00a0 I\u2019m using the English Standard Version, simply for the sake of (slight) freshness:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/span>In the beginning was\u00a0the Word, and\u00a0the Word was with God, and\u00a0the Word was God.<\/span>\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>He was in the beginning with God.<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>In him was life, and\u00a0the life was the light of men.<\/span>\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n6\u00a0<\/sup>There was a man\u00a0sent from God, whose name was\u00a0John.<\/span>\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>He came as a\u00a0witness, to bear witness about the light,\u00a0that all might believe through him.<\/span>\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n9\u00a0<\/sup>The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.<\/span>\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup>He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet\u00a0the world did not know him.<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>He came to his own, and\u00a0his own people did not receive him.<\/span>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>But to all who did receive him,\u00a0who believed in his name,\u00a0he gave the right\u00a0to become\u00a0children of God,<\/span>\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>who\u00a0were born,\u00a0not of blood\u00a0nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n14\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0the Word\u00a0became flesh and\u00a0dwelt among us,\u00a0and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of\u00a0grace and\u00a0truth.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>(John bore witness about him, and cried out, \u201cThis was he of whom I said,\u00a0\u2018He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.\u2019\u201d)<\/span>\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>For from\u00a0his fullness we have all received,\u00a0grace upon grace.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>For\u00a0the law was given through Moses;\u00a0grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Day.\u00a0 I\u2019m told that, in my adopted home state of Utah where I now live, there is or soon will be snow.\u00a0 Here in the Richmond, Virginia, area, we\u2019re having what seems a sunny day from early autumn.\u00a0 But that makes no difference.\u00a0 Christmas isn\u2019t really about winter scenes from Currier and Ives.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the advent and incarnation of the redeeming Son of God.\u00a0 What better news can there be, what better reason for celebration, than that<\/em>?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Richmond, Virginia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I often consider the question in my mind of which holiday I regard as the most important, Christmas or Easter. \u00a0 I\u2019m inclined, on the whole, toward Easter, because it commemorates two of the most fundamentally important events in both the divine plan and human history: the Atonement of Jesus Christ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2538,4907,7203,1356,2517,1363,1369,1366],"class_list":["post-93674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advent","tag-atonement","tag-birth","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-easter","tag-jesus","tag-resurrection"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>