Redeeming Christmas

By Dr. David Ley Alaska Bible College

I have been hearing ‘‘happy holidays” recently, have you? When I hear it said to me,

I immediately respond, “Merry Christmas!” Nine times out of ten, the person who

has greeted me with “happy holidays” will respond with “Merry Christmas.” I am

not disturbed by this interchange, though some might be saying “happy holidays”

for fear of offending. The reality is that when people say “happy holidays,” they are

acknowledging that a “holy” event took place 2000 years ago and we are celebrating

it! As believers, we praise the Lord for His incarnation: “God with us!” It is indeed

a holy day! Let’s not be offended but rather praise the Lord that He is holy and His

incarnation was His gift to us so that we might be holy in Him. As Paul wrote,

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God. —II Corinthians 5:21

By the way, the same redeeming of Christmas greetings can be understood with the

shortened version of “Xmas.” Sure, some may do this to try to delete Christ from

Christmas. However, remember that Christ in the original Greek language starts with

the Greek letter Chi (X)! Rather than being offended by others who may not want to

acknowledge Christ’s birth, let’s rejoice that He gets the glory anyway by redeeming

Christmas greetings with His perspective.

—Dr. David Ley, President