In the United States of America, it was Thanksgiving Day a couple of weeks ago. With the celebration of this holiday, it is typically celebrated with a Thanksgiving Day meal including Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, and a variety of other vegetable dishes. And we don’t want to forget the desserts. However, with the commercialization of America, stores have made the day after Thanksgiving black Friday because of the deep discounts offered on Friday. However, in America, things have become so commercialized that American people have lost the meaning of the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. In stores like Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby or major department stores, they put out Christmas stuff in October, ever-increasing the Christmas items week by week. Yet this Christmas season, without fail, has begun in the same way, but with little mention of Thanksgiving Day. Here in America, we have been so commercialized over-preparing for Christmas that we have somehow forgotten the meaning of Thanksgiving Day.
Forgive me if to some of you the telling of the original Thanksgiving is “old” news, but I’m going to do that in a short, concise recalling of the story between the Puritans (who defied the English government and the English church because the Puritans’ view of religious practices), and the American Indians, how they both celebrated the original Thanksgiving Day meal. On www.History.com, you can look up the history of the Pilgrims; how they defied King James of England; and eventually crossed over from Europe to the new land which they could worship God, not defined by rules. However, during their trip, the Puritans experienced ravage illness in which they almost didn’t experience the freedoms that they made the trip to the new land for, which would eventually become America.
As I write this, it struck me how hard it is to break tradition as Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving since it became a national holiday under President Abraham Lincoln. Yet “The Power of the Buck” (a.k.a. money) is changing that. A majority of Americans have fallen into this trap. Commercialism relies on two very important factors: peer pressure and social media. You combine that with holidays like Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day 《America’s celebration of dead soldiers who have lost their life in war》, 4th of July《America’s Independence Day》, rounded out by America’s Thanksgiving Day and Christmas) one starts to lose the meaning behind all of the original reason why we celebrate those holidays. This has been ramping up with the celebration of holidays like Kwanzaa and others that are celebrated in the same month as Christmas, which means more opportunity to make “a buck” (a.k.a. money).
However, this Thanksgiving, we traveled to go spend Thanksgiving with another family, to whom defied the The Evils of Commercialism (although they had all the technology a house could want). They caused our whole family to be in awe of the One who is broken for all of us (Jesus Christ). And don’t think we were the only ones invited over as they invited other family members as well. Our family could not have felt more at home. No individuals playing with their cell phones, rather we (all of us) played board games. Now that Thanksgiving Day was one of the best, yet the other family that invited us over did not make it into a spiritual enterprise where you had to be a Christian in order to get something out of it. No, no, no! Actually, that’s not at all what they did. They welcomed us along with the other family members with two additional interns staying at their house. What was the most outstanding was the way he honored God before we sat down to eat. However, the prayer to Almighty God before the Thanksgiving Day meal was simple; yet, it was (in my estimation) simply powerful. Then we began to eat and have fun. It was one of the best Thanksgiving Day meals my family and I have ever been a part of.
Yet, a little bit before the extended Thanksgiving Day Weekend, the Holy Spirit was doing something deep inside my soul; it was: “The Evils Of Commercialism Has Robbed The Real Meaning Of Christmas.” Ever since I was a child, the month in between Thanksgiving and Christmas has morphed into Christmastime season. Christmas season brings with it words like advent. Advent by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is defined as “the period of four Sundays before Christmas observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting.” It is slowly getting overwhelmed by “The Evils Of Commercialism” where the month long prayer and fasting over the birth of Jesus Christ is now turned itself upsidedown to make Christmas into how many “gifts” we get that are under the Christmas tree, thus losing the sense of “The Real Meaning Of Christmas.”
Let us, worldwide, especially us Americans, actively remember “The Real Meaning Of Christmas” as defined in 3 of the 4 Gospels. Now, I’m going to give you the reading from MATTHEW 1 English Standard Version:
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rehab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehosophat, and Jehosophat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerrubbabel, and Zerrubbabel the father of Abiad, and Abiad the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Elihud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.(THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST) Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place this way. When His (physical) mother Mary had been betrothed (engaged to be married according to the Merriam-Webster Ditionary) to Joseph before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being just a man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear (give birth) a Son, and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (which means God with us). When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, and knew her not (did not have sex) with her until she had given birth to a Son. And His name they called Jesus.
However, that’s the very beginning of the Christmas story. Approximately thirty-three years later we would have to wait to the true Christmas gift: Jesus (a.k.a. Immanuel) would die for us all, and three days later He rose from the grave (a donated rock tomb) in which if Jesus Christ didn’t rise we would still be dead in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:12-17).
The purpose of me writing this is not to put a damper on both Thanksgiving or Christmas. For I just want to warn you to not let this happen to you: “THE EVILS OF COMMERCIALISM HAS ROBBED THE TRUE MEANING OF THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS.”
“Give Thanks (With A Grateful Heart)
Retelling Of The Christmas Story In Song
~ Darren L. Beattie, BA, MSHS
: only blogger for TrueLifeChristianity
– December 13, 2019 .
TrueLifeChristianity.com 