I was walking through a mall that was decked to the rafters with Christmas decorations and tempting goodies one day a couple of weeks ago.  Idly, I thought about my family at home and presents that I had to get soon.  Then, a little voice inside my head asked, "What about you?  What do YOU want for Christmas?"  As I thought about it, I just stopped suddenly as I realized:  I didn't really want anything for Christmas.  I have everything I want and need.  It's a shocking thought to come to you, considering our society that continually urges us to buy, buy, buy.  They make us feel as if we don't have enough.  That we won't be happy until we buy product X.  Most of us (myself included) never even consider that when we go on our frequent shopping trips.

But if you really get down to it, if you strip away everything that we own, what are we?  What is Bill Gates without his money?  What is Saddam Houssein without his power?  Or a model without her tons of clothing and make-up?  Just another ordinary person.  Another child in the eyes of God.  And try as we might to bury ourselves up to our hair line in products, wealth, glamour, whatever, God sees us as we really are, without all the wrappings and trimmings.

So, it's exactly one month until Christmas now.  It is a time to re-evaluate our priorities.  We make all sorts of resolutions to help the needy, and give to all sorts of charities with generosity.  After all, that's the spirit of the holiday.  We smile at strangers and wish them a Merry Christmas.  We sing Christmas carols about goodwill to men and peace on earth.  The television is inundated with shows filled with people doing good deeds for each other, turning around to help those who need it.

Yet, despite all these things, do we really know the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts?  Do we understand why we celebrate this holiday?  Looking around me, I don't know.  Christmas has definitely lost a lot of it's meaning to commercialism.  That was inevitable.  A holiday focussing on giving really does do wonders for the retail industry.  Especially when you buy to give.  Not everyone has the time to make a gift for someone.  And not everyone is like a child in that they are willing to expose themselves to rejection by making something the other person may not think is nice.  That is human nature.

But that is not what I'm trying to say.  Sometimes, Christmas is so filled with obligation (or what we feel to be obligation) that we don't stop to think what we are doing those obligations for!  I pass stores with cards and T-shirts in them listing all the duties one performs at this time of year to keep up the holiday tradition (the cards, the big meal,  gift buying and wrapping, baking, extra dishes for the pot-lucks you have to attend, a million and one parties, putting up the tree and decorations, hiding everything, etc., etc., etc.), and then stating that they will be glad when it's over.  You'll be glad when it's over?  What does that mean?

I have also noticed that when Christmas is over, when the 25th of December has passed, it is truly over.  With the end of Christmas comes the end of the goodwill, the generosity to the poor and the charities that help them.  Everyone withdraws back into his or her respective shell again.  You try to smile and someone on the street, they stare blankly back at you for a moment before hurrying along, wondering about the "crazy person" back there.  The resolutions are forgotten, the spirit lost, the television goes back to its regular programming.  Once again, it is everybody for themselves.

I cannot pretend that this does not happen to me as well.  Sometimes, I forget about the spirit of Christmas.  I forget to do the things I said I was going to do.  I forget to try my best to help those who need things more than me.  But that's not the way it should be.  Christmas, or at least the spirit of Christmas, lasts all year round!  It is a 365 day-per-year commitment!

What, after all, is the true meaning of Christmas?  It is selflessness.  It is putting all the things that matter above yourself.  It is the coming out of the shell that you hold around yourself; a shell of protection from self doubt and fear of the things you don't know and refuse to experience.  It is reaching out to others and loving them as Christ did on his short journey on earth.  What is Christmas anyway, but the Mass of Christ?  The celebration of love come into the world to die for us for sins he never even committed?  If Jesus was willing to do that for us, it can't possibly be such a big deal to just reach out a hand to someone and help them along the way, can it?

What do we send cards for, but to tell those we love and those we hold dear that we are thinking about them, and to tell them we care about them?  It is a daunting task, admittedly, when we consider the number of people we have touched throughout our lives.  But remember that they always look forward to hearing from us; that receiving that card from us is probably the only  news they hear of us during the entire year.  And with the computer now to make it easier to make multiple copies, how can it be such a large task?  (she said with tongue in cheek)

I agree that Christmas is a rather stressful time for everyone.  I have watched my mother go through it several times, and I know that it is not a fairy ride.  But every once in a while, we have to think about what Christmas is truly about, why we even have Christmas at all.  And thank God that He loves us so much.
 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

-John 3:16-

 

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