Shakespeare wrote

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

I ask you what is in a date.  When we celebrate a birth date or anniversary, does the exactness of the date matter or does it only matter that we take a moment to remember the event?  We savor the specialness of what occurred and the ‘when’ just acts as a road mark to remind us to deliberately pause on specific occasions to remember.

No one alive today knows the exact day or month of Jesus’ birth.  By the year 200, several dates were argued as correct.  These dates included August 28^th, May 20^th and March 21^st adjusted from different calendars to today’s Gregorian calendar plus the two finalists.

January 6 in the East and December 25^th in the West eventually became the prominent choices for celebrating Jesus birth.  Early on, the January dates represented a celebration of several events.  These included the wise men presenting their gifts to Jesus, the baby being taken to the temple, the Baptism by John.  Eventually, the birth came to be included in this grouping.  Today, many still celebrate the 6^th of January as the day of Christ’s birth.

In the west, the tradition of Christmas on the 25^th solidified and eventually was established by the Roman Emperor Constantine as the official date of Jesus birth.

The question becomes less about what is the exact date the babe entered the world, and more about how you honor this date.

Over the next few weeks, we will study the traditions and the customs of Christmas.

In this season, we will see Christmas trees, and angels and Santa Claus everywhere we go.  The point of this study is to find their original Christian meaning.  Let’s dedicate ourselves to learning how they became a part our our traditions.

When we see the lights, the trees, the angels, let their history remind us of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As we study about astonishing acts of love by those who loved the Lord, let it challenge us to similar acts of love.  When we see how the ancients created new ways to tell others about Jesus and those methods morphed into our modern decorations, let us be challenged to look for ways to also tell others about Jesus.
Many Christians from days gone by believed recognizing the events of Jesus birth were important.  They focused the believer’s thoughts on how Jesus become flesh and how his birth fulfilled prophecy.

Let us commit to doing the same over the next 25 days.

 

John 1

^{10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.}

¹¹ He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

¹³ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.