As many of you probably know, the general consensus today is that December 25th actually isn't the day the poor boy from Nazareth, named Jesus, was born in the city of David. What then is the point of our celebration on this particular day? As I was thinking about this question, I happened to be listening to the new Jason Mraz album "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.", which I think sheds some light on this. In his song “Live High,” Jason says the following:

Glory God
Oh God is peeking through the blinds
Are we all here standing naked
Taking guesses at the actual date and time
Oh my, justifying reasons why

Here we are "standing naked" before God, who is "peeking through the blinds" of heaven to earth, watching us guess at the "actual date and time" of His Son's birth. All the while, we are trying to "justify" what we do, as well as the questions we ask of Him, ourselves, and the created order. As Jason hints at, it seems from God’s perspective that we are confused, and even mislead. Recently, I have been trying to make a difficult life decision, and today I finally realized that I am not getting answers from God because God isn't speaking, but because I have been asking the wrong questions (more on this in my next post).

Jason Mraz makes a suggestion, which in all actuality is biblical: "Here’s an absolutely insane resolution to live by: Live high, live mighty, live righteously."

Maybe Christmas is just as much about us, as it is about Jesus. Maybe the reminder of the advent (the coming) of the Son is meant to lead us to make changes in our lives. Perhaps this is why we feel the need to make New Year's resolutions right after Christmas.

So, we don’t know the actual date of Jesus' birth, but we still have a reason to celebrate—Above and beyond our understanding, we affirm that the Son of God entered the world and became flesh (John 1:14; compare, Heb 1:1-14 and Col 1:15-20). He gave up His place in heaven (temporarily) to accomplish a mission to save humankind from its misleading questions, agony, pain and sin.

We all stand naked before God. The question is: What will we do with that vulnerability? Will we see the Infinite God in everything? Will we see beyond the consumerism of Christmas, beyond the questions, and just start to trust? Or, will we walk away from the reason why we celebrate?