What Christmas is All About

In the classic Peanuts show “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Charlie Brown famously asks, “Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?” His friend Linus then proceeds to give perhaps the most famous reading of St. Luke’s Gospel account of the birth of Jesus. St. John has his own version of the story, what one might call the “advanced” version of the Christmas story. John tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He also says beautifully that “The light shown in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The truth is that there remains much darkness in all of our lives. It is precisely to this situation that Jesus came and continues to come. God did not abandon the world 2000 years ago and he has not left us alone either. God has been and always will be with us. In times of darkness, the light shines all the brighter. In whatever situation we find ourselves this Christmas, God comes to us just as he did in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. This light brings us great hope, and that’s what Christmas is really all about.