On Christmas Eve, Nairobi comes alive.
Supermarkets are full. Mobile money messages do not stop. Families travel, budgets stretch, goats are slaughtered, and tables are prepared. Across Kenya and around the world, Christmas carries serious economic weight.
Yet beneath the lights, songs, and spending lies a sobering truth.
The world pauses for a day, but resists a Person.
It celebrates a season, but avoids a Savior.
Jesus is welcomed into culture, but not into conscience.
Isaiah saw beyond the festivities:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…”
Isaiah 9:2
That Light was not a symbol. He was a Person. And still, many choose the day over the Light.
Five Ways the Irony Reveals Itself
1. A day costs nothing. The Light costs everything.
Celebrating Christmas requires no repentance. Following Christ demands surrender of pride, sin, control, and self rule. The world enjoys the holiday but resists transformation.
2. Christmas is economically honored, Christ is spiritually ignored.
Billions are spent globally. In Kenya, families strain finances to “do Christmas right.” Money flows freely, yet hearts remain closed to the One being celebrated.
3. The baby is acceptable. The King is not.
A baby in a manger feels safe and sentimental. But Isaiah reminds us,
“The government will be upon His shoulder.” (Isaiah 9:6)
The world loves the Child but resists His rule.
4. Light exposes what darkness hides.
Christ confronts idols, compromises, and comfortable sin. Celebration allows people to feel moral without being transformed. Walking in the Light requires truth, obedience, and humility.
5. Familiarity has replaced reverence.
Carols are sung without contemplation. His name is spoken without submission. Christ has become background noise in His own celebration.
The Question Christmas Still Asks
Isaiah’s prophecy holds a tension we cannot soften.
A Child who is Mighty God.
A Prince of Peace whose peace flows through righteousness and justice.
The tragedy is not that the world celebrates Christmas.
The tragedy is that many stop at the celebration and never meet the Christ.
Yet the Light still shines.
Christmas confronts us with one honest question:
Will we merely celebrate His coming,
or will we receive His rule?
Because Christ was never meant to be remembered once a year.
He came to be followed daily.
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