Easter Bunny vs. Santa Claus

I found myself pondering this weekend... which holiday is really more significant?  I have noticed over the past few years that I have almost reluctantly admitted to "liking" Christmas better than Easter, while feeling a little bit guilty about it.  Seriously, Christ rising from the dead is CLEARLY the holiday we should celebrate more.  As I have matured in my faith and understanding of the two holidays and what they symbolize, I began to feel like a "bad Christian" to enjoy Christmas more.  Sure, sure... at first it is easy to attribute it to commercialization and carols and lights.  After all, the only thing that really comes with Easter is a giant bunny and maybe a chocolate egg.

I have sort of always fought the truth of "Jesus was REALLY born in July," and "the traditions we celebrate today have nothing to do with Christ and really aren't even an accurate representation of historical tradition." There are a lot of "grinches" out there, and they can certainly rob Christmas of its joy.  But the Christmas we see is not the important part.  When the trees and presents and cookies are stripped away, we realize what we are celebrating was the fact that God came to the earth as a HUMAN.  If Jesus hadn't come into the world as a human being, it wouldn't have mattered.  Long ago, at the fall of man, sin entered the world.  Because God cannot exist in the presence of sin (He is too Holy) a ransom had to be made to atone for that which tainted the perfect.  The consequence of sin to us is death (both physically and eternally.)  Now, unfortunately, we had no way out... until Jesus came.  He died so we wouldn't have to.  When this happened, he became like us (human) and died in our place to pay what we owed.  This was required in order to restore OUR relationship with the Father.  If He had come any other way, it wouldn't have mattered, because what we owed for our sin could not be paid in any way other than the "human way."  This is what we celebrate at Christmas.  This year, I am focusing on more than Christ as a baby.  I am focusing on His humanity.  Sometimes I look down at my hands and imagine Christ looking down at His own, human hands in the same way.  It blows me away.  He was perfectly God and perfectly human, and that is why He can be the link between us (perfectly human) and God (perfectly God.)  Without Him, we wouldn't have stood a chance.

Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, Easter is important too.  But let us remember that there could not have been an Easter without a Christmas first.  Let us not lessen ANYTHING God has done for us!