8 Pound 6 Ounce Baby Jesus

In yesterday's post, Ross wrote about how Christmas itself is wonderful. "It meets our longings. It fills our needs. It invades the dead of our winter, bringing light to the darkness and warmth to the cold."

How incredible! Christmas ITSELF is wonderful. So wonderful in fact, that many people love to celebrate it without really even understanding what they are doing. How many people do you know who have Christmas trees, hang stockings, or light up their front lawns every December and yet may never have stepped foot in a church or opened a Bible to hear the story of how Jesus came into the world over 2000 years ago? You don't really have to be a Christian at all to celebrate Christmas. How ironic!

It seems that many people share the sentiments of Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights when he prays to little baby Jesus "in his golden fleece diapers with his tiny, little fat balled up fists... don't even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly, but still omnipotent." Ricky admits...

Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I'm saying grace. When you say grace you can say it to Grownup Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or whoever you want!

I can't help but wonder why?! Why do so many of us celebrate this season without even knowing what we're doing? Why does Ricky Bobby like the Christmas Jesus Best?

Harry and the gang even celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For crying out loud! Has Baby Jesus infiltrated the Wizarding world too?

The answer is emphatically yes!! Perhaps in our heart of hearts there is a deeper longing for Christmas than even our minds can comprehend.  Perhaps, without even knowing it, we are acknowledging our need and our hope for something or someone to come from the outside and save us. And perhaps, without even realizing it, we are announcing and celebrating Him, even in the most common Christmas carols:

"Christ the Savior is bo--rn,
Chri--st the Savior is born."

Maybe the Christmas Jesus is so many people's favorite because without even knowing it, at Christmas time they acknowledge that Christ is real... simply by participating in CHRISTmas.

You see, Christmas itself is so wonderful because CHRIST is wonderful!!! This actually is a season of hope, even if we don't really understand what that means. Ricky Bobby and Harry Potter may just be characters in movies but their sentiments resonate deep within each of us. We need Christmas! We need a season of hope, hope that one day all that is wrong will be made right. And as Christians, we know that hope has come in the form of 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus.