X is for Xmas
We wish you a merry Xmas, we wish you a merry Xmas, we wish you merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. Hi everyone. Welcome to week 24 of the ABC’s of Contentment. Today we’re on the letter X and X will be about the history of Xmas. I just love Christmas. Hence, why I’m wearing all this Christmas attire. Notice my blouse, my red turtleneck, my bracelet, my earrings and my Santa hat? I’m ready for Christmas from head to toe. Now the only thing missing is at the very bottom; I need some red and green shoes. If Christmas were the only holiday on the calendar, that would be fine with me. If I had the proper hand dexterity, I would open my own Christmas shop and make a whole bunch of ornaments and other decorations. But anyway, getting to the video. Like I said, we’re going to have a history lesson. Why write Xmas? You know, many Christians get upset when they see the abbreviation of Xmas because they think that our culture is using another way to take Christ out of His own holiday and I can’t blame them. For a while, I thought the same thing. Until I read a book by a guy named Ace Collins called “Stories Behind Christmas Traditions.” In it, he talks about three main reasons why they used Xmas and where it began. I thought they were cool and so I thought I’d share them. So here we go. The first reason was that many of the first Christ followers were Greek. The Greek name for Christ is Xhristos. Spelled the Greek way it’s X- R- I- s- t- o- s. Many of the first Christ followers only had a very basic education, and so even though they could read, it was hard for them to recognize their own name on a document; X was the best thing. That was what they recognized. Also, clergymen at that time taught that X was a symbol for the Christian faith. Just like today we have the Christian fish, the X was their symbol at that time. X marked places where people could go to worship, it also marked places where people died and were remembered. The second reason was resources. Paper and ink were not as easy to come by as they are today. They didn’t have modern conveniences, so Xmas was used as an abbreviation. It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that Christianity began to spread to Europe and Xmas first began to appear in Catholic writings. The third reason was that Xmas was a symbol of faith and for people who died. X marked the spot where they died. Many of the early Christians were hung for their faith. They were burned. X was used as a symbol to remember them and a time of celebration. X was also a symbol of the cross. It wasn’t until the 1800s that Christmas became a national holiday and retailers tried to use it as an abbreviation on their signs and packages. They also tried to honor the early Christians and use a symbol that people could understand. Unfortunately, today a lot of people don’t know the Greek language, and these reasons are not often taught in many churches, so a lot of people don’t know about them. But this is one of the very first Christmas traditions started, and the people that died for this would be proud to see it being carried on into modern Christmas. Again, I don’t blame people for getting upset about the term Xmas. I did too because I didn’t know the reasons until I read the book. We have a lot to learn from the early Christians. They laid down their lives for Christ. If it came down to that, if somebody asked you about your faith, would you be willing to do that? What gift can you give Christ our Savior this Christmas season? Think about it. I’m going to leave a link to a song in the description called “I’ll Give Him My Heart.” I hope that it will make you think and provoke some good emotion as you think about what gift you can give our Savior this season because He’s given so much. Let’s close in a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for sending Your son Jesus to Earth as a baby. Help us to be content like the early Christians, to learn a lot about contentment, sacrifice, and devotion, and give Him our whole heart; because He deserves it. He deserves our all. Amen. Well, that’s it everyone, and I’ll see you next time when we talk about the letter Y. Y will be for Yield. That’s it and thanks for watching. Bye, God Bless.