The world’s fullest expression of peace and goodwill

“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given (Isaiah 9:6).”

Deeply treasured memories of Christmas overwhelm me at this season of the year. Sometimes, I must confess, I break into song.

Over time, those memories have caused my faith to grow.

The holiday affects persons of every background imaginable. Many, who profess faiths other than Christianity, or who hold to no faith at all, are drawn to the Christmas message.

It’s the single Christian holy day that’s also an important secular holiday, and is the world’s fullest expression of peace and goodwill.

“As a Christian believer, I am glad to share the virtues of the day with the entirety of society,” writes pastor Timothy Keller in his new book, “Hidden Christmas.”

“Secular Christmas practices are enriching to everyone … and are genuinely congruent with Christian origins of the celebration.”

I’ve spent Christmas in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, where Christians are a small minority, yet the holiday is enthusiastically embraced by the masses. The yuletide message has meaning for all.

The Disney Channel informs my 3-year-old grandson that this is the “most magical time of the year.” Really? Why?

Perhaps because the Christmas message goes far beyond magic. It’s transforming.

With the passage of years, my feelings for Christmas have intensified. Christmas is perhaps more important to me today because I have eight grandchildren and am blessed to view the holiday through their disparate — blue, green, hazel and dark brown — eyes.

Christmas is always about those whom we love, never ourselves. Even a reprobate such as I can see that.

Christmas is more than evergreen wreaths, twinkle lights and holiday flash mobs. Those aesthetic touches are but flinty shards off the Mt. Rushmore of Christmas profundity.

In the charm of the stable setting — and the lowing of the beasts of the field — we mustn’t lose sight of the significance of it all.

At its heart, the holiday celebrates Christ’s Mass: the coming of the Anointed One … Immanuel. Immanuel in Hebrew means “God with us.”

Jesus is the long-promised Savior of the World, and his arrival is the heart of the Gospel.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not parish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).”

Jesus chose to abide with our shattered race. He arrived just as we did, a helpless infant. The unblemished “Lamb of God” is the only means for our salvation.

Since Jesus’ advent 2,000 years ago, God has dwelled, cheek-to-jowl, with his creation. No surly judge occupying a bench billions of light years away, he sits smack-dab amongst us.

So, Christmas is about us being broken; the God of the universe becoming human; and that God/Man taking our guilt upon himself.

One may enjoy the holiday as a follower of Jesus Christ — or not. Christmas comes to us at different levels.

Whether I’m a participant in the ancient orthodoxy or not, it’s relevant to my circumstances. Whether I’m a participant in Western Culture or not, I can utter a hearty, “Merry Christmas!”

The message is universal. It’s about an existential love that surpasses all other loves. As a Christ follower, Christmas gives expression to my longing for meaning and eternity.

It’s my belief that God came to dwell among us on that first Christmas morning in the form of an infant. He came not “once upon a time” but once for all time. The calendar by which we mark time acknowledges that.

Charles Dickens’ famous character, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, scrambles from his bed Christmas morning — after a night of visitations — a changed man.

He joyfully shouts: “It’s all true, it all happened.”

What happened?

Not the appearance of three phantoms in his bedchamber, but a full-blown Christmas miracle. The light of the Christ Child, “born this day in the City of David,” has transformed the Old Humbug.

If Jesus Christ is God come to earth, Christmas is the watershed event of human history.

And, I can be changed.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.