In the South at least, it’s almost PC to tell people don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas as we sit in our offices, or at the restaurant table. As everyone is a Christian to say otherwise would be losing face to our family and friends.
…and yet we are doing the same things that everyone else is doing..shopping, decorating, travelling, wrapping, complaining, pushing, gripping, wishing it was all over with…and that means our voicing to others to not forget Christmas is just a waste of breath.
My mom said the other day that it seems when we where young that there was more time from Thanksgiving to Christmas and the reason for that (at least in my family) was because mom didn’t have to work, we had no cable or Internet. The only phone we had was hanging on the wall in the kitchen and eating out was not the norm but a treat.
Do I want to go back to those days? As a geek…nope. I love my Android phone, my ipad, my cool apps and technology has giving me a job to feed my family.
(By now your probably saying just get to your point, I got things to do.)
Ok here is the point.
This Christmas just stop…I mean just stop for a minute. When you pray over the Christmas meal…mean it. When you read the Christmas story..mean it. When you hug your children and thank God for them…really mean it.
More than once this year I have been going to say pick up my son from his grandparents house and instead of driving to their house I have caught myself making the turns to go to work. What does that say? I told myself where I needed to go, but my thoughts where so shallow and so unfocused that my body just went on autopilot.
The same can happen to our “true meaning of Christmas” statements.
So this year, I’m taking my meaning of Christmas off autopilot and really thinking about how my savior came to this earth to live a life that would one day get him put on a cross to give us salvation.
Jesus, thank you for being born of a virgin over 2000 years ago and for giving us the chance to one day be with you in glory.
Happy birthday Jesus…and I really mean that.