Happy Birthday Jesus

Last night we went to my sweet neice Evelyn's Christmas recital/peagant. It was really cute; there is nothing better than watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds dressed up like livestock and various nativity figures space out and sing off key. It was fabulous. Evelyn, however, did not lose focus--she was one of the few who actually sang all the songs and didnt start playing with her costume. We are so proud of her. :)

I had a thought, though, while we watched the program. They sang the song "Happy Birthday, Jesus", you know the one: its always sung by little kids as mostly a ploy to manipulate the parents to tears. So I sat there thinking, " Is this a theologically sound song? Isn't this fostering Arianism in our children? Does this matter to any of their parents?" I know, I know, no one is trying to make little heretics out of our children, but seriously, is that song helpful?

It seems like people are missing the point when they put up signs and sing songs that celebrate Jesus' birthday instead of the incarnation of Christ. I admit that maybe its a hard concept to grasp, and it may seem like I'm splitting hairs, but if parents dont get it, will their children? If you treat the 'meaning' of Christmas as Jesus' birthday, doesnt that make Jesus 2006(or 2009 depending on your sources) years old and in effect a created being?

Instead, it would be wiser if we shifted our focus from 'baby Jesus' to celebrating the fact that Christ came down and took on flesh and became man. John 1:9-18 and Philippians 2:5-11 would be better passages to meditate on in December than Luke 2 and Matthew 1-2. The fact that a member of the trinity stepped down and became a man and lived among us is more astounding than any events we attribute to December 25 --Kathy


Littlefield Update: we have moved to our cozy one bedroom apartment!