On Tuesday, President Obama addressed the nation regarding the war in Afghanistan .  .  .  and there was an uproar over the event.  Now, this was not the typical uproar over policy, this was the outrage from countless children and parents over the fact that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was being pre-empted by the speech of the President!  “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was swiftly rescheduled for the next week and a true national crisis was averted.

Seriously, I think we need to notice the importance of this reaction.  We live in a world with VHS tapes, DVDs, and DVRs.  We can watch any show at any time on any given day.  So, why were so many people concerned about this change in time for one cartoon?

A few years ago, I preached a sermon about the fact that Charles Schulz managed to share his faith by using his gifts of cartoons.  I shared that Schulz shared his faith without attacking others and without difficult words.  He simply shared the message of the Bible through his cartoon characters.  Reading about the uproar over the moved television show, I read one comment that reminded me of my past.  “A Charlie Brown Christmas has a sacrosanct place in our household.  We watch it every year on the first Tuesday of December.”

Perhaps the message of Christmas is not lost .  .  .  we just need Linus to remind us the “true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown.”