Christians, far and above most people, buy their undergarments pre bunched. That is to say they find ways to be offended and usually about the wrong things. My favorite seasonal offenses are those revolving around the use of " Xmas" and "happy holidays".
We've all heard the old hens cluck at somebody who says "Happy Holidays!" with an admonition to remember the reason for the season. They piously announce that they,as good Christians, only say Merry Christmas.
And this is why I laugh at both of you. I laugh first at the Christian because they should know better. They should know that because we are heirs with Christ we are heirs to the words God created. These are our words and we should know their definitions. Holiday comes from the words "holy day". And if we are worshipping Christ and His entrance into this earth then that may just be a day that is holy (Romans 14:5-6). And IF we know that we should be able to look at each other- with a Christian twinkle and not a dour scowl - and chuckle at the person who uses "Happy Holidays" as an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas.
And that does bring us to the much loathed Xmas. We are often told of how the dirty heathens use an X (scribbled in goats blood, I'm sure) to X Christ out of Christmas. A little history, a little Googlian etymology reveals that the dreaded X is really just an abbreviation in the Greek. For all their writings of mythology and musings of the pen or quill the Greeks still didn't mind the occasional abbreviation. Xmas was the Grecian version of what would today look like Cmas. I for one, wish that they abbreviated abbreviation. That is a long word to describe the shortening of a word.
So I encourage you all to lighten up, spike the eggnog if you need to and know that our God made the words and therefore the definitions. A rose by any other name is still a rose, marriage is still between a man and woman, and the days we choose to honor our Creator are holy.
Happy Holiday
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