JUDY DEAN
Christ in the Alphabet – “X”
Good afternoon. This is Judy. Today we continue our Christ in the Alphabet Devotion series by looking at the letter “X.” In the Greek alphabet X is the symbol for the letter “chi.” In the early days of the Christian church, Christians used the letter X as a secret symbol to indicate their membership in the church and to keep from facing martyrdom.
If you knew the Greek meaning of X, Xmas and Christmas essentially means the same thing – Christ + mas = Christmas. X is the first letter of Christ’s name in Greek. But as for me, I will continue to say and write Christmas as C-h-r-I-s-t-m-a-s because without Christ, Christmas would just be “mas.”
One word that actually begins with the letter X that describes Christ is probably new to you, it was for me. The word is “Xenodochial” which means friendly to strangers. I’d say that describes Christ, don’t you? Some words that start with the X sound and describes Christ are: eXcellent –
Christ is perfect in all ways and in all things. His name is to be eXalted far above the heavens. Don’t ever try to hide anything from God for He has “X-ray” vision. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. eXamine your life and strive to live closer to Christ. Remember that Jesus tells us that eXcept a person is born again, they will not enter into Heaven.
Let Us Pray
Jesus, Thank you for the many eXtraordinary ways that you bless us. We love you and eXalt your name. As we go through life and, at times, face difficulties, help us to set a Christlike eXample to others in how we react.
Help us to eXceed the eXpectations you have for each of us and forgive us whenever we doubt and fail. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
AMEN
