When I was a little boy it always bothered me to see people abbreviate Christmas by writing Xmas. To my child’s mind it seemed like people were taking Christ out of Christmas. As I got older, it still bothered me, but I certainly saw worse examples of taking Christ out of Christmas. I still refuse to begin the word Christmas with an X, but I have become more tolerant. Recently I read the symbol “X” represents the Greek letter chi the first letter in the word Christ. The author suggests that using an X is not offensive, but honors the Greek spelling. Besides he says — it saves time. The former eases my angst a little, but the latter doesn’t. If it saves time, then tell me what people do with that saved time. It’s like all of the timesaving devices we use today. Do they really free us to spend more time praying, caring for our neighbor, or playing with children. The reality is no, it saves time so we can do more of the same thing we were doing in the first place. We spend more time writing X’s than following Christ. I should ask myself every time I congratulate myself on saving time, what will I do with it? If the saved time is not better spent, than why am I saving it?
A Place To Meditate, Think, and Pray
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