It can be said that among all the Christian festivals, Christmas has the most decorations.
The decorations are not just in church. It is also in the business and commercial sectors, as well as in other public places.
Regardless of whether the decorations have any spiritual meaning, whether the words are spelled “Christmas” or “Xmas”, most of the decorations are unmistakably Christmassy.
So, in Church, there is the Nativity scene, the Christmas tree, the Christmas wreath, the Star of Bethlehem.
The secular decorations would have fancy fairy lights, maybe Santa Claus and reindeers and whatever.
But to admire Christmas decorations, we need to take a few steps back in order to appreciate it.
And some decorations can only be appreciated from a distance. Anyway, if we go too near the decorations, we may see that it can be rather messy, can be rather dusty, and when there are electrical wiring around, there are also concerns about safety.
But it is not only Christmas decorations that can be appreciated from a distance.
Things like art and sculpture, floral arrangements and designs, as well as life and relationships, all that make sense when we step back to appreciate it and to understand it.
When it comes to life and relationships, we can say that up close, it looks like misery and tragedy.
But take a step back, or few steps back, life and relationships may reveal beauty and mystery.
When God created the world, He saw it as good. When He created humanity, He saw it as very good.
But when humanity committed sin, there came about misery and tragedy.
But God still saw the world and humanity as beauty. And here comes the mystery.
God became man in Jesus Christ, and He came into this world and into the misery and tragedy.
God did that because He so loved the world and Humanity, and God wanted to restore back the beauty.
And this is the mystery of Christmas, that the Divine became human, so that humans can become like the Divine.
To become like the divine means to love as God loves, and to see as God sees.
So if we think that our life and our relationships are described as messy, misery and even tragedy, then Christmas is the Good News.
When we stand back and look at the Nativity scene, we remember that God took on human flesh and entered this world as a little baby, then we may come to realize that life has tender beauty and mystery.
So, we stand back and we look at life and our relationships.
We stand back and remember the people who are near and dear to us, and also those who are near but not that dear to us.
We stand back and we look at God and the world.
Yes, we need to stand back because when we go too close, things become blurry and messy, and we see only misery and tragedy.
The Christmas celebration is about God becoming man so that man can become like God.
Jesus came to lift us up from the misery and the tragedy so that we can see beauty and mystery in ourselves, in others and in the world.
When we can see beauty in humanity, then we will know why Jesus came into this world.
Jesus is the Saviour. The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of our salvation.
To be saved means that we can see as God sees, and that is to see love and beauty in ourselves, and others and in the world.