What do you think about when you think of Christmas?
Do you think of family?
Gifts? Christmas lights? Parties?
The birth of Jesus, of course
And don’t forget the less fortunate.
By the way, can someone give me a ride to the mall? I’ve got that last minute shopping to do.
How will I pay for my trip back home?
I wish I could be back home.
Don’t forget to donate to the soup line
How will I pay for all these Christmas gifts?
Should I send Christmas cards this year? Does anyone care?
So many thoughts, so much stress.
Christmas was always so important to me. Besides all that, it is a fun time and it is
a time when people do think about others, if even for a short time. It’s a good reminder.
It’s too often true that we will open our presents and not
be happy with whatever gift we have been given.
We get depressed and despondent over our gifts, forgetting already about
our reminder.
Christmas is a reminder what Jesus was all about. He came into this world and changed so many
things. He threw out the old laws and
brought in new, which over time have been forgotten or rewritten and Christmas
gives us that chance to pause. To
remember that Jesus’ main purpose was to come and bring forgiveness. Up and to that time the laws were very harsh
on any offender and one had to work their way to be next to God or find nirvana
in whatever culture or religion one subscribed to.
Let’s be reminded that it was Jesus that stopped the woman
from being stoned to death. Whoever is
without sin can cast the first stone, he told the crowd, and saved the woman’s
life. He threw out the law and the
prophets and brought in grace and mercy.
Let’s be reminded to be graceful and merciful to our family
and our friends.
My Christmas table was always open. I wonder if anyone
remembers. If someone was without a
family to have dinner with, they could come to my table, it didn’t matter that
we were poor and already had so many mouths to feed. But that was a long time ago. I try and remember those happy times.
