Happy Xmas 2008!

Thursday, 25th December 2008

How many of you have gotten used to hearing the greeting, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"?

Well, back in 1984 when Band Aid released the charity single "Feed the World -- Do They Know It's Christmas?", the extended version featured comments from the singers and I remember Bono of U2 saying, "Happy Christmas and Merry New Year".

But I am digressing...

Most Christians would prefer to greet one another "Blessed Christmas", rather than "Merry Christmas". After all, merry-making is associated with partying and booze, and no "good decent" Christian should have anything to do with such activities.

And that would be my standard greeting for the past couple of decades as well.....

... until this year

As a result of embracing the grace gospel, I now greet everyone I meet "Happy Xmas". Let me explain.

Previously, I was told that "joy" was spiritual but "happiness" was superficial. After all, joy is one of the fruit of the spirit, whereas happiness was like secular vernacular, found in songs such as "Don't Worry be Happy".

I know now that happiness means much more than that. For the New Covenant believer, it is a state of resting in Jesus' finished work, and thus allowing Him to place us at the right place at the right time.

We read in the King James Version of Ruth 2:3
And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

The original Hebrew word for hap is the word qarah, which was what my maiden blog entry about how I met my wife is about, and you can read about here.

And so, being happy to me now means being stress-free, expecting God to cause happening things to happen. That's why the Mr Happy tshirt, phone accessory, etc...

Ok, that explains the HAPPY part. But why XMAS?

I also remember feeling very uncomfortable when seeing Christmas being abbreviated to Xmas. After all, the very reason for it being CHRIST-mas was Christ, and it was irreverent to replace Him with the letter X.

Well, God also just revealed to me how this abbreviation came about. In the early days of the church, Christians were being persecuted for their faith and had to use secret symbols to identify one another. One such symbol was that of a fish, which in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthus). The Greek letter X (chi) in that acrostic stood for Christ (Christos)!

And with that, let me wish you ROOTSS readers and everyone out there in blogosphere

HAPPY XMAS !!!!!