This time of year, every year, we hear an uproar from well-meaning people about the secularization of the Advent-Christmas season.  They write and speak, and sometimes yell, about the travesty of “Taking Christ out of Christmas”.  They make almost as much noise about this as they do about “taking God out of the schools”. 

Think about it for a moment.  If God is who we say God is – all knowing, all powerful, all present, how can anyone take God out of anything or banish God from anywhere?  How can any group or society remove Christ from the hearts of those who truly celebrate Emmanuel, God with us?

Those fearful and outraged statements do not add to God’s glory.  They diminish it, by making God seem vulnerable to the whims of human nature.  God is.  Period.  Jesus is.  Period.  If those who call themselves Christ-followers would spend their energy doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, (Micah 6:8), they would do much more to influence the world for good than they do by yelling at the world for taking away their rights to practice what they say they believe.

I am not so worried about taking Christ out of Christmas. This can not be done. I am more concerned with taking the cross out of Christmas. The baby came as God with us, Emmanuel. The baby came to die so that we may live. When you see the X, see the sign of the cross, and rejoice!