I would have to agree with you; increasingly, our world has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. Most people still know that it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago, but they don’t take time to reflect on why that’s important or what it should mean to us today.

Why is this? Why have we substituted the glitter and gadgets that fill our malls for the greatest gift the world has ever received – the gift of Jesus Christ? One reason is because our society has become more and more secular in the last half century or so, moving God to the edges of our lives and assuming we can live without Him.

In other words, instead of building our lives on the foundation of God’s Word, we’ve substituted our own wisdom and our own way of doing things. This should cause us grief, because it means that all around us are people who (as the Bible says) are “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

Don’t just lament this, however, or look down on those who don’t understand the true meaning of Christmas. Instead, ask God to help you be a witness for Christ to those around you – both by your life and your words – especially during this time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. On that first Christmas “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:9).