What Child Is This?

Today in Tokyo the Ginza is lined with small Christmas trees as a reminder of the season. The decorations take me back to a time when I was at sea. November and December of that year, I visited the Mediterranean. Christmas eve we anchored in the Tunis harbor and Christmas day we moved to the docks.

This was my first Christmas away from family and my first Christmas in a land where they didn’t celebrate Christmas. Over the next few days I toured Tunis, visiting Carthage, seeing a coliseum, wandering thru the marketplaces sometimes dressed in local clothing, and eating meals with Muslims. It was a memorable and rewarding experience.

Still, it seemed strange. It was just another night. No Nativity scenes, no songs asking “What Child is this” or tenors proclaiming “O Holy Night”. It was a Christmas without Christ.

There was no celebrating the birth of Jesus. I missed hearing the story of His birth, the visits from the shepherds and the wise men, the proclamations of Simeon and Anna, Herod’s slaughter of the children and the flight into Egypt. I knew in my head that not everyone believed in Jesus, but there in Tunis I realized it, in my heart, for the first time. It was my first Christmas without Christ.

Over the years, I have seen other Christmases without Christ. Unfortunately they have not been in other countries; they have been here at home. Today it is not “politically correct” to say “Merry Christmas”. The Nativity story is replaced by a “Christmas Story” – a boy’s longing for a BB gun at Christmas.

We’ve become a country who celebrates Christmas without Christ. We celebrate but we don’t remember why. Yet, Christmas time asks us a very simple question, “What child is this?” and our response reveals our heart.

This question is the beginning of many questions. Later Jesus asked Peter questions like,

“Who do people say that I am?”
“Who do you say that I am?”
“Do you love me?”

When Jesus asked those questions to Peter, He asked them to each of us, personally. How we respond reveals our hearts.

Jesus asked Peter to “feed My sheep”… to care for the poor, the widows, the orphans, to heal the sick, to preach the Good News. Those of us, who profess to be Christians, are asked the same…to feed His sheep.

So with an opportunity to continue to be politically incorrect, I wish you a Merry Christmas and encourage you to remember why we celebrate Christmas….ask yourselves, “What Child is this?” And in your merry-making, feed His sheep.

From a hotel in Tokyo, praying for your health and prosperity in the new year…

Charlie