A friend posed the question if all the frills of Christmas including the gifts, decorations, trees, and food, were taken away, would we still be celebrating?
I love giving and receiving gifts and all the glitter of the season, but I also love the SPIRIT of Christmas that prevails during the month of December. No matter what words someone greets me with, I know in my heart MY celebration is about Jesus’s birth, yes, even if we don’t know the exact day he was born. It doesn’t matter. Christians are celebrating Jesus’s birth!
The gift of remembering with a small, heartfelt, written letter or card and caring enough to give of your time is more than some ever receive and is the gift that keeps giving for a very long time. I still have the handmade cards and letters my kids made for me when they were little and they make me smile to this day.
A smile or kind word to someone who is downtrodden could be the best gift ever for you both. What about letting someone else have the pleasure of making the dinner and serving you? How about giving people the benefit of the doubt and offering some mercy? That’s a BIG gift, right there. So many people need forgiveness and compassion, and sometimes they don’t even realize it.
It’s these little things that make a person feel loved and esteemed. The older you get, the more you realize this because you are winding down on accumulation and seeking the significant parts of life. Fancy trips, new cars and houses, and giant RVs are nice but in the grand scheme of life, they are meaningless.
What would the world be like if the spirit of Christmas spilled over into the rest of the year? I like to think it would be a much better place where people could see beyond themselves to touch the heart of another person, whether they like them or not, or it’s convenient or not…even blood relatives.
Love ya, Humanity. We can do this!
Merry Christmas!
A LIVING STONE 