According to the Mayan calendar I shouldn't be typing on my
computer today. The end of the world
should have happened on December 21, 2012.
The speculation surrounding that date has been made into movies, some
were scared to send their children to school.
Meanwhile, the schools here were canceled due to weather and a lack of
power at one of the schools. We didn't rejoice, in fact my teenagers were pretty distraught. They had hoped to finish up their final exams
that day. That day may go down in
history as the first day that my children were NOT excited about a snow day.
I have to ask the question:
Were you concerned? In our house
we made jokes. I also informed my
children that if Jesus did decide to come back on that day I was ready. I operate under what I know to be fact. The Bible says that no man knows when the
coming will be. The Mayans were not told
before the Son. That’s a fact. The Mayans probably got tired of calendar
making and instead started working on something else. I have no idea what happened, maybe they
thought it would be funny to mess with a future generation they wouldn't be
around to see, and just stopped.
It wasn't the end of the world but is it the end of
Christmas as we know it? All over the
world people are finishing their Christmas shopping and wrapping in preparation
for the big day. We count gifts and make
sure that we have enough for everyone; we think to be sure we haven’t left
anyone out. We get together with family
and some members don’t even speak to each other. Some go into debt in an effort to provide
their children with the best possible Christmas and for what? What does Christmas mean? I hear people asking for specific gifts. “Johnny wants a pair of jeans but they must
come from the Buckle because otherwise he won’t wear them.” “Sally wants Ugg boots.” “Fred wants a flat screen TV.” Seriously, I have to ask myself what happened
to Christmas?
In a manger thousands of years ago a Savior was born with no
crib for a bed. He was wrapped in
swaddling cloths and placed in a manger.
No heat, no air conditioning, no Pampers, no layette, no hospital staff,
no sterile conditions did our Savior have for a beginning. No He was born in a barn with farm animals
and the smell of well…farm animals. Do
you get it? Did Mary have a baby
shower? Did the mother of our Savior, a
teenage girl, get the things she would need to care for a newborn? No.
She was visited by three Wise Men who brought gold, frankincense, and
myrrh. What was she supposed to do with
that? They rejoiced. They celebrated the birth of the Son of
God.
What are we celebrating?
We get together with our families and we exchange gifts and sometimes we
don’t exchange words. We don’t even see
them the rest of the year. We make no
effort. We buy them gifts and send them
on their way and think that covers us for the rest of the year. Is this of God? Is this what God intended for us to do in
celebration of the greatest gift known to mankind? I hardly think so. I am not saying we shouldn't get together
with our families. I am not even saying
we shouldn't exchange gifts. What I am
saying is this: Can we do those things
and remember the purpose? Can we do
those things and remember why we celebrate in the first place? Or have we become so commercialized that we
can’t even remember why?
I don’t want to go through the motions. I don’t want to get so wrapped up in the
things of this world that I have forgotten who gave them to me to begin
with. I don’t want to forget the true
meaning of Christmas. I want to REJOICE
for our Savior was born. In ALL things
rejoice.
1 comment:
Another excellent example of how God uses you and the words He inspires within you to share with the rest of us! It is too easy to get caught up in the season and forget the reason. My family is one that disregards one another for the most part, at Christmas and every other day of the year. I hope someday I might be the catalyst God uses to bring them all back together again. Merry Christmas, dear one! ♥
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