(This is something I wrote a few years ago about the Christmas season. Hope you enjoy it!)
It’s the holiday season again, can you tell? People are rushing here, rushing there, rushing everywhere! So much to do, so little time. Lists to make; presents to buy, wrap, and give; parties to go to; decorations to put up…so much to do! Stress reaches an even higher peak, and we wonder why we can’t cope. Is this really what Christmas is all about?
Of course not! Christmas is about a babe born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago to a virgin girl who truly trusted in the Almighty. A baby born to die and redeem the world of sin. This baby was a gift of love from an Almighty God to all of creation, a fulfillment of eternal promise. This baby came with hope and promise of transformation, yet His Father knowing all along that He would be despised and rejected of men and would ultimately die for their lack of love. Yet, still, He came.
How have we come from this wondrously simple gift of love to the present hustle-bustle, where Christmas is a burden and not a pleasure? Where Christmas has become a time to simply be gotten through and most people are glad when it’s over? How? Because we have forgotten WHY we do what we do. We have our traditions in place and feel we must keep them religiously. Perhaps we need to recall exactly why it is we do what we do.
To children, the most important part of Christmas is surely the gifts. The excitement of knowing you’ll get some great new toy that you’ve longed for, plus some other neat stuff, too. But the gifts are meant to be a reflection, a symbol of love for one another. The gifts are but a token way to say, "I love you and want to please you." They are a symbol of the great gift God gave us at Christ’s birth. Gifts are not important in and of themselves, but we have allowed the "Gimme" factor into this important time of the year until often, there is no room for celebrating anything else.
We should celebrate at Christmas the simple pleasures in our lives that we enjoy every day…our families, our friends, and the fact that we have food on our tables and a roof over our heads. There are many who are not so fortunate…there are many who will be alone at Christmas, with no Christmas feast, with no Christmas gifts, with nowhere to live or eat. We are blessed, and we should not take this precious gift from God for granted.
So how do we change from hurry, scurry, and worry? We must regain our focus of Christmas, and capture the true meaning once again in our hearts. We must share the love of God with those who are close to us and perhaps, with those who are not as close to us but need our love. We must look back to that time of simplicity when the Messiah lay as a babe in a manger. Do not look ahead to the craziness of the season; instead, savor this as a time of love and fellowship. It is all that is truly worthwhile.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
