Merry Xmas!

Every day when I take my sons to school they anticipate a particular moment with great expectation. They wait for the morning show on 106.9 The Light to share the Daily Nugget of Knowledge. This is a bit of trivia that generally gives you a new perspective about some mundane aspect of life or tells you something new that you didn't know. The boys are frustrated if they miss it because we get to school to early and will ask me to tell them after school what the trivia was about. Once when my wife took them to school they made her record it on her phone for them to listen to later. One day last week the Daily Nugget of Knowledge had to do with Christmas. Well, actually it had to do with Xmas.

A Christmas Postcard from 1910.

The interesting thing they shared about Xmas is that the use of Xmas rather than Christmas isn't some new secular way of trying to rid the world of the name Christ. I was a little surprised because I had never heard the real reason people used Xmas instead of Christmas. So I did a little research to make sure what I had heard was right. Come to find out that the abbreviation of Xmas has been used since as early as 1551. The reason "X" is used is because the first letter in the Greek word Christ is an "X" shaped Greek letter called "Chi" (pronounced like the ki in kite). The use of the "X" is an abbreviation of the name Christ and has for centuries represented Christmas, rather than some secular attempt to remove Christ from Christmas.

Now I realize there are Christians who, regardless of the explanation of why the "X" is used, will still say its not right and that the world is trying to remove Christ from Christmas. The world (those who don't know Christ) are not trying to remove Christ from Christmas because they don't celebrate Christ's birth to begin with. They celebrate an opportunity to spend time with family and a time to give gifts to each other. So forget the advertisements that use Xmas instead of Christmas and realize that the world is not gathering to celebrate the birth of Christ like Christians do. The important thing we as Christians need to do is to share Christ with those who do not know Him so they can celebrate Christmas for the right reasons. That is our calling. Not to get our feathers ruffled over red cups at Starbucks and department stores saying Happy Holidays. We gather with our families to celebrate the birth of our Savior at Christmas. Our next greatest desire should be to see other families doing the same where they once did not.


If you enjoyed today's post be sure to Share it on Facebook and Twitter so others can be encouraged too!