We live in a non-Christian world where few know of the risen Jesus. And even fewer know the stories of his birth and life as a human being. Now imagine, in this situation a law is passed that you must attend church, and all of a sudden there are more persons attending church than ever before. This is what occurred when Constantine was emperor of the Roman Empire. With this situation the local churches put together classes to teach their guests about the Christian faith, its beliefs and how to live it out in daily experience. It is during this time that the Christian calendar was polished into the forms that the universal church has today with dates for Christmas, Easter, and other celebrations were set. And the Christian seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost were designed to teach about our story as God's people.
The Christmas season was given twelve days likely because twelve is a biblical number. For examples, there were twelves tribes of Israel, and Jesus chose twelve apostles to follow him. The twelves days of Christmas begin on December 25 and end on January 5.
My invitation is to be a radical in today's world for we need
Christ-centered "radicals". Continue celebrating Christmas until January 5. A method recommended is to review the Christmas story each of these twelve days and join me in asking,
"OK, Jesus, what do you want me to do today?"
... and look for answers that make you bend out of your way to help others. Such will be continuing to offer Christ-centered gifts as our Christmas celebration will lengthen.
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