If you ask the average Dane what all the solemnities of the church are about, the answer would in most cases be “blowing in the wind”.  To most people questions like that wouldn´t be very interesting.

One church event we all know about, however:  The birthday of Jesus.  The story about the child in the manger, the Bethlehem star, the shepherds on the field, the choir of angels proclaiming “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men!” and the wise men from the East, etc.  is part of our Christian heritage which the Danish people would never dream of doing away with.

In other words:  The birthday of Jesus is part of our Danish identity which we like to make more Danish, though, by adding to it all kinds of Christmas festivities of which the commercial world has its share.  Even if Jesus had never been born, even if He were a sweet legend only (as one of our authors, Georg Brandes, insisted on in his book “The Myth about Jesus”), we would have invented  our own sumptuous “Christmas”.  In fact, our forefathers, the Vikings, did that - they called it a “solstice feast” with its good meals and drinking orgies.

Despite all that Christmas stuffing, is it possible to get “the real thing”?  Praise God, it is.  I meet people on my way who are hungry for lasting spiritual answers which empty materialism cannot give.  What a joy it is to sit down with a fellow human being and proclaim the old true story again and again:  “I bring you good tidings of great joy!”  and:  “To you is a Savior born who is Christ, the Lord!”, not as a poetical fairy-tale, but as precious reality to the modern, dissatisfied heart.

Let me put it even stronger:  I have seen this crucified and glorified Savior make His entry into a repentant  heart, and a lasting change took place.  This is what the Bible calls “salvation”, - “conversion” – “a new birth”, “a new nature”, but it boils down to the same thing:  A lasting change in everyday life and a happy hope for the eternity.  As a young lad I accepted that great gift, the greatest gift ever, so I can truthfully say like the apostle Paul who before his conversion hated Christ and Christianity: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  (2 Cor. 9:15).

What about you?  Have you accepted that "indescribable gift”?

-jn-