Dear Editor,
I was driving home from my parent’s house on Christmas Eve where our family gathered to celebrate Christmas. While driving I heard a Christmas song on the radio.
I believe, in this one Christmas song, I have found the perfect portrayal of the confusion that I see in our world today.
People are void of a solid foundation from which to build their life experience. Without a foundation we are all seeking and searching for something of substance to cling to.
The lyrics you are about to read are from a beautiful song by Faith Hill. The music is touching. Faith’s voice is incredible. But the philosophy of the song is empty and void of substance. This is the world’s philosophy in a single song:
Where are you Christmas, why can’t I find you, why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter you used to bring me, why can’t I hear music play?
My world is changing, I’m rearranging. Does that mean Christmas changes too?
Where are you Christmas, do you remember, the one you used to know?
I’m not the same one, see what the time’s done, is that why you have let me go?
Christmas is here, everywhere, oh Christmas is here, if you care, oh, if there is love in your heart and your mind, you will feel like Christmas all the time.
I feel you Christmas, I know I’ve found you, you never fade away.
The joy of Christmas, stays here in silence, fills each and every heart with love.
Where are you Christmas? Fills your heart with love.
If you like this song I would like to warn you in advance, you will not like what you are about to read. You will, though, be awakened to an amazing philosophical truth.
Christmas is not an object. It’s a title that has been given to an event from history.
We, the empty philosophers of the world, have tried to bring Christmas to life. We want it to live and breathe and function on its own. We want Christmas to do something for us. We want Christmas to excite us. We want Christmas to save us from our day-to-day lives. We want Christmas to heal the world’s problems. We want Christmas to relieve our inner pain. We want Christmas to bring about a robust recovery to our economy.
What we have misunderstood is Christmas, as a something, is really nothing.
Christmas is a word. It’s a title given to a seasonal event that we must supply with power if it’s going to produce anything at all. Christmas is nothing more than an idol for empty worship. Christmas cannot “change,” becoming more or less, because it’s has no living qualities.
See, Christmas is not alive. It can’t do anything. Christmas cannot change anyone. Christmas has no power, no presence it has no life at all.
To call Christmas a “you” is to give it personality. To say Christmas is “here” is to give it presence. To say we can “know” Christmas, “feel” Christmas or “find” Christmas is an attempt to make Christmas into a living being.
Now, I would like to enlighten you to the truth.
Behind the word or title of Christmas is something that can supply everything this song is in search of. The world has missed the truth of Christmas and is trying to make something of nothing.
God, on the other hand, has supplied us with everything we are looking for in the Christ.
The “you” of Christmas, the “presence” of Christmas, the “power” of Christmas, the “life” of Christmas, the “knowledge” of Christmas and what this song is searching for is the Christ of Christmas.
Without the living person behind all the hoopla of Christmas it’s really nothing at all.
But, with the person of Jesus Christ everything this song is pleading for can be fulfilled.
Thank God that He supplied the substance that will fill our emptiness.
Without Christ there is nothing to Christmas but an empty idol of man-made worship. 
Pastor Thomas R. Swain
First Church of God
Great Bend