This time of year it’s common to see things like this in shops and homes:
Should we, as believers, feel ok with seeing ‘Xmas’ written everywhere instead of Christmas?
There is a sense of dismay, even anger, when we feel that Christ has been taken out of Christmas, even if just in word and not in a wider sense (different issue!).
But, when we pause and take a step back, when we look into why Xmas is not so bad, we see that this idea of our Lord and Saviour being removed from the very time of year we celebrate His birth by writing ‘Xmas’ is actually founded in…nothing. Let me explain.
In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, Christ is written like this:
Χριστός.
What do you notice at the start?
Χριστός.
We see an x, don’t we?
Χριστός.
See, writing x and meaning ‘Christ’ is as simple as abbreviating David to Dave, Philip to Phil, or Beatrice to B.
With that in mind, think about growing in the knowledge of X,
experiencing the love of X,
living in the grace of X,
having your sins covered by the blood of X,
and you will soon start to see X as Christ, and Christ as X.
When you read X, did you actually say ‘Christ’ in your mind?
Same person, different language.
Same meaning, different letters.
Same life-giving, sin-covering, and death-defeating Jesus.
James Travis 