The Greatest of These - Merry Christmas!

When faced with all of the hostility I'm seeing around Facebook (and other places) about whether or not people should ONLY say "Merry Christmas," in order to "keep the Christ in Christmas," I've been pondering... I love Christmas, and just about everything about it (just not the commercialization of it). I love the whole month of December, and enjoy every day of it as much as I can, whether people say "Happy Hanukkah," "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or whatever they say. The fact that they wish me a great December is truly appreciated.

But what is Christmas all about? If, indeed, one is a Christian, then one believes that it's about Jesus Christ. And what was Jesus Christ all about? Well, he was about Love. (Not hostility, not debating semantics about how we express Love; just Love.)
So... what is Love?
New Testament readers should remember I Corinthians chapter 13 pretty well, I think, and non-Christians would agree with what is says, as well, in my opinion.

1 Corinthians 13

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never fails.
¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Back to the question at hand, what is Love?

If we use this reference as a guide, Love is kind (Webster's -  kind: adjective: having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others; wanting and liking to do good things and to bring happiness to others). Love doesn't seem to have room or time for discord, now, does it?

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Whoa - back up! Those are really deep, profound declarations!

Love bears all things. It can lift and hold up ANYthing?  Why, yes, Love can.

And it can believe all things? (Well, all true things.) Even the really hard to believe things? Yes, Love can.

Love hopes all things? (Webster's - hope: verb: to want something to happen or be true, and think that it could happen or be true.) Love is... hopeful? Yes, Love believes truly good things will happen.

Love endures all things? ALL things? I mean... life is hard. Is Love really that powerful, that it can endure even overwhelming joy, strife, pain, victory, loss, agony? Yes. Love can. And does. It can deal with the best or the worst in life. And Love itself endures - it lasts, and remains as it is, eternally.

Love never fails.
EVER? No, never. Love is so powerful that it never fails. If something is failing, maybe it just needs more Love. You know, that kind, hopeful, enduring Love.

Now, not everyone loves in the same way, to the same degree, or even agrees with the above definition of Love. But that's a theme for another day. We all love to the best of our ability, and I think that makes all expressions of Love worthy - perhaps priceless.

So, for the rest of December, whether someone says "Happy Holidays," or "Season's Greetings," or "Merry Christmas," or "Shalom," I'm going to hear them saying "I love you." 

In my experience, it's impossible to be offended when someone says "I love you," and means it.

So, Happy Merry I Love You Time to you all!

Love,
Mama K