“Happy Birthday!”

“Happy Birthday!”(Rom.5:12-14&18-21).
Yesterday for the first time I visited the cattle market, Bamenda. Regular cattle dealers confirm that the day had many more buyers than it usual. One of the butchers even told us that this year cow has been more expensive than previous years.
From the look of things not less than five hundred cows were bought by social groups. The amount per cow could be placed between three hundred thousand and six hundred thousand francs CFA.
This is just one sales point for one Christmas good only in one town only. Take away this commercialisation and the exaggerated spiritualization of Christmas day and it would be just another day like all other days.
The argument whether Christ was born on the 25th of December has become a cliche. While the majority world use the Gregorian calender to celebrate Christmas on the 25th, December, the Orthodox church using the Julian calender celebrate Christmas on 6th January.
So what’s in a date. Typically in Africa the dates that some people project as their birthdays and which are celebrated are made-up-dates. To celebrate a birthday is a commemoration that one was born on a certain day; it is not about the exactitude of the date of birth.
We celebrate the birthday of Christ to remind ourselves that on a certain day the Son of God came down from heaven to fix what Satan through Adam had spoiled. To put it in Pauline language, “…sin entered the world through one man and death through sin…” and now “through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.”
Christmas day reminds us that on that day God set in motion the plan to ease our pain and guilt of enstrangment. Christmas reminds us that grace reigns “through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Let us be thankful to the Lord for this day of grace and celebrate not with fanfare but with hearts prepared for Emmanuel to live in.
Weekend prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for God’s gift of grace that puts us righteous with the Father. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you! Merry Christmas!
Rev. Babila Fochang.