See, my recent media work has got me dabbling in graphic design. This means in a season like this, opportunities to put together Christmas messaging come through, well, kind of.

And technically speaking, red is a good color for Christmas after all, its complementary colors abound too. What doesn’t usually abound is the New Testament messaging that fits well on a typical Christmas card without contradicting our largely sentimental Christmas perceptions.

I mean, most New Testament scriptures speak about an adult Jesus, his words, life, death, resurrection, and their implications on believing lives.

Some passages, If hang in our living rooms today would embarrass Christmas visitors, imagine that hyper family-centric relative reading up “Whoever loves his mother or father more than me is not fit to be my disciple.” (Matt 10:37)

Watch your unbelieving guests move to the edge of their seats having seen a placard on your door side. “No one comes to Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

It gets more complicated thinking about some contemporary gospel music (and those of us who love to chorus it.) Modern gospel lyrics (unlike many ancient Christmas carols) do so much in telling us how “loved” we are in the eyes of God—an emphasis that borders on narcissism if not grounded in God’s love for his son, and his willingness to crush him so we may not be.

Long before December 25th, we seem to always have done little to reorder our attention to the Jesus that grew up.

It’s not every Sunday you that hear your pianist find a fitting key for a chorus like “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ (Luke 13:32)

Or have you pondered, in song, the apostolic words left to Jesus followers to expect to suffer, and how “whoever desires to live a godly life will suffer persecution.” (2 Tim 3:12)

So oh yes, let’s head out today and sing our hearts out about an uncharacteristic baby in a manger, yet let’s not forget how that baby grew up, and got crucified for shallowness like ours.

And in pondering the implications of his adult life, we just might just find the substance we badly needed to cope with the modern feeling-focused, therapeutic mindsets that dominate our years— and often reach their crescendo on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!