There is old adage called the KISS principle- Keep It Simple. It means that the simpler we can keep things the more likely people are to get the idea or concept that we are trying to communicate. I have been struggling with the tensions between this principle of communication and perpetration and planning for our Christmas Eve Service here at River of Life. I have combed through hours of INTERNET pages doing research trying to find that special something to make our Christmas Eve service bigger and better than last years. I have been working within the framework of the limitations of our finances and really creating nothing but a tense ball of frustration in my own mind and soul. As I was praying over this a few weeks ago God brought to my mind the story of the origins of the Hymn "Silent Night." It dawned on me that we find ourselves in that same situation-things beyond our control are hampering our abilities to do things the way we want to do them but Christmas isn't about doing things the way we want to do them, it's about doing things the way that God wants to do them.

Be honest, if it were left to us we would not have chosen to send the King of the Universe into a stable in an out-of the-way town, in the remote part of a small and obscure nation under the occupation of the worlds super power. No, most of us would have planned some majestic entrance into the world's seats of power. We would not have chosen lowly shepherds to proclaim his arrival. We would have trumpeted his coming with big banners and announcements in the press and perhaps a spot or press conference on prime time TV. We certainly would not have left the transmission of his message to a group of men who made mistakes and did fully comprehend the message that their leader was proclaiming until after he had completed his mission. But God's ways are not our ways. He kept the whole thing fairly simple.

If I have my facts right, the whole concept of Christmas started out very simply. First, the frist Christmas was designed by God in the simplest terms to provide a simple way of restoring the broken relationship between God and man. Even the origins of many of our favorite Christmas ideas were originally must simpler and even though many of them have their roots in pagan celebrations, even after they had been Christianized, they were much simpler. Consider the origins of Santa Claus or the Christmas tree. Santa finds his origins in the legends of the Bishop of Myra who was by all accounts a shy and humble man who wanted to give money to the poor. Legend has it that he was so shy that he dropped a money bag down the chimney- see the way something so simple has evolved into something so complex. Originally Christmas trees were decorated with cookies and candys that had been purchased at Christmas markets. Latter the trees began to receive homemade ornaments made of paper and household items. However, even before that, living pine trees were brought into the house to remind the people that they would soon have green crops growing in the field. Again, see the way we have taken something that had at one time been so simple and made it more complex?

Here's the point. Christmas has become so complicated, so busy that the simplicity of the true meaning of the day has been lost. While we can complain about the commercialism of Christmas and the hustle and bustle associated with it, even Christians need to be weary of complicating something that is really very simple. Christmas is not about grand church services, cantatas or children's programs and pageants. Christmas is the celebration of the simple. It is a celebration of humility. It is the celebration that Christ "made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant  and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:7-8). Christmas is about relationship. It is about man's relationship with God who through Christ was reconciling the world to himself. While big services, cantatas and children's programs can be acts of worship, they can also become one more thing that makes a simple thing more complex and in the complexity of Christmas we can lose the simple truth.