Merry Christmas! And I mean it!

I was at a bazaar a few days ago and bought a bumper sticker.  Nothing much, just $5 towards the youth group, but I felt a bit bold and a bit uneasy. The reason? It said “I’m keeping Christ in Christmas.”

It feels like a small thing and yet, in this uneasy world, it takes courage to not only feel your faith but announce it to the world. You can go to church, you can pray at your leisure, but no-one really wants to know or talk about it. That’s fine. I’m fairly private about it most of the time myself.

And yet, hearing of the terrible things happening today in the name of religion, hearing about the towns who are replacing nativity scenes with innocuous trees and lights, political correctness that asks us to say “happy holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas,” I’m feeling pushed more and more to stand up for what I believe, to not go quietly into the good night.

So this year, I’m putting a bright red bumper sticker on my car and waiting till after Christmas to nwash the car so that it stays there. It says that this holiday, for me, is about Christmas. It says that I believe in something that’s important to me. And it says it in a less private way than I’m used to. And that’s fine. It’s about time I was courageous enough to wear my faith on my sleeve.