Believe

This Christmas season, as happens each year, there are movies that come out to talk about the meaning of Christmas. So often we are treated to an important message that tells us that Christmas really doesn’t have anything to do with the trappings that the stores are trying to sell us. We are reminded that Christmas is about something more than presents and toys and lawn ornaments and receiving gifts. Unfortunately, these movies tend to be somewhat vague about what Christmas is really about and end up focusing on peace on earth and family. They don’t want to offend anyone.

The Polar Express, this year’s first foray into the Christmas market, is a delightful animated movie starring Tom Hanks in about five different roles. It tells of a boy who is taken by train up to the North Pole to see Santa Clause, who he no longer believes exists. It is a fun kids movie with a number of memorable characters and moments. It also has a moral to it that is not the usual Christmas moral. Instead, it focuses on the idea of belief and what it means to believe in something that you cannot see.

The message of the movie is good for it focuses on the importance of believing, but it also lacks something, because that belief is wasted on an imaginary guy with a white beard and a red suit. Again, we are shown that it is not as important what you believe in as long as you believe in something.

But we have a different Christmas message for the world. We see that it is important to believe. It is vital! But it is also important that what we believe in is real. We have a story to share with those around us that will give them something powerful to believe in as well.
We believe that this world is loved so much by God that he sent his only son into this world. We believe that he could have come as a king, but instead he was born to refugees in a barn. We believe that he did amazing things on this world and was crucified and then rose from the dead.

It is important to believe these things. It is central to what we are as Christians. But it isn’t just our belief that makes them important. It is important to believe these things because they are true. Our belief has power because it is belief in something that is real.

So, this Christmas let us focus on the importance of believing. But let us remember that what it is that we believe in is more important than just whether we believe in something. We believe in Jesus! And this is why Christmas is so important.