This week, Christians all over the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. As we wish you a merry Christmas, it’s also time to have some deep retrospection about our commitment to fulfilling what actually Jesus stood for and what being a Christian entails. The first question you should ask yourself, as a Christian, is that if Jesus was to come this week on Christmas day, would He find you loaded with sin on your shoulders or would He find you “ with your garments spotless clean and as white as a snow” as one popular hymn put it? That the world is full of sin cannot be gainsaid. Romans 3: 23, is more concise about it: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. We should feel liberated after realising that we have sinned and we need divine power, or even someone who may help us overcome our guilty conscience. But how often do you pray and seek this divine forgiveness after realisation hit you that you have broken a commandment? Do you take it easy that our sins had already been washed by the “Blood of the Lamb,” and thus this gives you a carte blanche to do whatever you want to do with your life, including breaking God’s commandments, and feel that you will not be made accountable for your sins in your afterlife? That Jesus said He would come back like a thief and takes the righteous to glory is undisputable among Christendom. The world has waited for his second coming for thousands of years and there are people who, tired of this waiting, have questioned if he, indeed, said he would come back. However, Jesus used a number of parables to illustrate about His intention to come back. According to the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints magazine, Jesus used the image of the bridegroom and the Ten Virgins in one of his parables to portray the coming of the Lord (Matthew 22:1-14). “We do not know the timing of Christ’s Second Coming, but we should prepare for it as though it could come at any time—whether soon or late,” it concludes. But how many of us are prepared for this momentous occasion when he will come back in glory? Which part of the Ten Virgins do you fall into-the five who didn’t have their lamps ready or the other half that had theirs ready to welcome the bridegroom? It’s quite unfortunate and ironical that the day we should be celebrating the birth of Christ, many people add more sins into their heads by committing acts that go against the texture of the bible. This is when promiscuity, adultery and fornication reach its zenith. This is the time when people overindulge themselves in excessive drinking of alcohol, contrary to biblical teaching on the same. This is the time we forget the unfortunate in the society and be individualistic. This is the time some of us, instead of going to church head to the nearest bar “to celebrate.” On the contrary, this should be a time for deep reflection. This should be a time we should repent our sins and be aware that Christ died for our sins. This should be the ideal time to rediscover our spirituality.
