In John Bunyan's timeless allegory Pilgrim's Progress, his parable of the Christian's journey from sin to heaven, we see Christian and Faithful walking their way to the Celestial City. One of the towns they encounter is Vanity Fair.. The town's undying appeal was that it offered everything one could possibly want to purchase. It glittered, and sparkled with so many delights, once one stopped to browse, it was not uncommon to get forever caught up in the madness of it all. Christian and Faithful stood out because they dressed differently, and spoke differently than the consumers in Vanity Fair. They were repelled by the emptiness of it all and saw what a poor trade-off it was in comparison to the pilgrims' destination. And when Faithful dared to open his mouth to appeal to reason and point to a better way, he paid with his life.
We are all destined, for the rest of our lives, to be consumers of goods and services. But should that be our whole life? When did Vanity Fair move into our space to such a degree, Advent is now marked by continuous Black Fridays (starting in October) and an overt war against Jesus as THE reason for these holidays?
Where did, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life " go? If we were visited by strangers from another planet (humor me, please) would they know the season is not about sales, and gifts, angelic love stories, and even lights? Would they be misled into thinking this season is about US - our needs, our want, our desires?
Christians, are we being faithful in keeping Christ central to all we do? How are we keeping Christmas this year?
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