When I was a young guy, I used to love watching the various Christmas programs. For those of you old enough to remember, you might recall watching the original “Frosty the Snowman” which was first released in 1953 and featured the famous song and dancing by Frosty in the first classic animated short film. Or how about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that first aired back in 1964? And there were songs by Hardrock, Coco and Joe as well as a host of other holiday favorites that even included full length movies such as “A Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”
I used to love watching these Christmas classics and now it seems that the holidays come and go before I even have a chance to consider watching some of the oldies. But the point of tonight’s post is to mention that it was on this date, December 9th, back in 1965, that we first were introduced to arguably one of the greatest Christmas programs of all time. For it was on this date that we first watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
In case you have never seen this special, it is about a disheartened Charlie Brown who is determined to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. His friends were all part of the show and it won the hearts of people across the country. The big idea here is that Charlie Brown was tired of the commercialization of Christmas and chose to focus on the “real” Christmas event.
I’m afraid that the things Charlie worried about are still the things that haunt us today. So many people are focused on celebrating the holiday without any of the remembrance of the biblical reasons for the celebration of Christmas that we have lost much of the meaning. In fact, I know several families who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. The children are excited because they get to celebrate several holidays but nobody stops to ask what the belief systems are in those families. Because those two faiths are mutually exclusive when it comes to whether they celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world or not. No exceptions…
The verse for this evening highlights the announcement of the coming of Jesus in human form. We are told, in Is. 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” My encouragement this evening is that God wants us to remember the reason for the season. My prayer is that while we all enjoy celebrating Christmas, you will take some time to reflect on the plan that God launched that night when He sent Jesus to live among us in human form. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…