If you ask the average Dane about the significance of our church festivals, the answer would probably be “blowing in the wind”.

There´s one exception though:  The yearly Christmas festival.  The birthday of Jesus.  The story about the child in the manger, the star of Bethlehem, the shepherds on the field, the angels and their greeting “Peace on earth”, the wise men from the East, etc.,  is part of our Christian heritage, and by all means we don´t  want to miss it, I mean the romance of it.

In other words:  The Christmas in December equals our Danish identity which we make even more Danish with all sorts of fancy decorations to create a cozy Christmas atmosphere.  The commercial world has a share in that whole glittering framework.   Even if Jesus were never born He being just an old legend as asserted by Georg Brandes, one of our blasphemous and influential authors, who in 1925 wrote the book ”The Jesus Legend”, we would still invent our own super Christmas festival with a cornucopia of good food and drinking orgies.

Our forefathers, the Vikings, already did that.  In fact, they were famous for doing that.  They had their so called “solstitial festival” which was on the 25th of December, and they had their own cruel pagan gods.
But what about the real thing?  Is it to be found after all?  Oh, I meet people sometimes who thirst for reality and a non-materialistic answer for their lives.  I´ve been sitting next to individuals like that and shared what I´ve experienced myself, even the great joy of a great Savior, not as sentimental piece of poetry, but as a firm and solid foundation for everyday life throughout the whole year.  So the answer to my question is Yes – a thousand times Yes!

Let me put it even stronger:  I´ve seen this saving gospel make its entry into a human heart that meant ”change” in the true sense of the word.  It thus meant “Christmas” every day and on all kinds of days.  It has done that for me throughout a long life.  I can boldly say with the apostle Paul:  ”Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  (2 Cor. 9:15)

-jn-

24.12.09