“You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid;
Say to the towns of Judah: "Here is your God!”
Christmas has lost whatever religious meaning it ever had, and instead has become just one more excuse for corporations to sell things. Massive traffic jams, packed shopping malls, and lines stretching around the block have become hallmarks of the holiday season. Even uglier, are the “special sales” that regularly lead to pandemonium and which are used to herald the start of season earlier and earlier. All of this deliberately designed by the corporations and credit card companies to convince us to spend more and more and owe more and more.
For me however, as I grow older, Christmas is the time for my family and me. The powerful feeling of family is never any stronger than at midnight of Christmas eve when, gathered with all my family, we welcome, together with all the faithful of the Christian world, the glad and glorious tidings of the birth of our Lord.
and on earth, peace and good will toward men"
Unfortunately, like our tendency to distort and commercialize Christmas, we have also successfully buried this beautiful command from God of “Peace on earth and Goodwill to all men”.
As we enter this season, instead of peace on earth, we have wars raging in every corner of the world and among every nation and even within nations. In fact peace appears to be the most elusive commodity in the whole world. So too are our leaders, irrespective of whether we elect them or otherwise. We grant the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize upon one of our Presidents and he promptly increases the size and extent of the war in Afghanistan. We are spending more money on building greater and greater weapons than we are feeding and housing our neighbors. We have clearly not learnt any lessons from the past wars and conflicts, nor do we seem to give more than lip service to the mounting death toll and worse still, the mounting numbers of young men and women whose horrendous injuries are an abomination to humanity. And we do this all, in the name of freedom and democracy!
And as to goodwill to all men; few of us have taken the time to understand its true meaning. We appear to prefer the most successful, the most notorious and the most aggressive people as the ones deserving the recognition. We happily appoint a man of very questionable morals as the world’s greatest sportsman, a woman of equally questionable character as the greatest entertainer, showering them with our money and adoration. Yet we ignore the millions of people who go from one day to another not knowing if food is available to feed their children.
Even worse than this, is the lopsided attitude of our governments towards the care and support of society. We unhesitatingly spend billions of dollars to support the greedy, selfish incompetence of our financial leaders, including handsomely rewarding them with large bonuses for destroying the world’s economies. Yet we do not raise a finger to help the millions of unfortunate investors and homeowners, leaving them to wallow helplessly in the mud of
failure and bankruptcy. Where in God’s name is the goodwill toward men?
So as we enter this season of Christmas, a season chosen by God to remind us of our own responsibility towards our brothers and our neighbors let us all commit to live by his words.
That we will all strive, by word and by deed, to ensure peace on earth, and do whatever and whenever we can, all that we are capable of doing to restoring good will toward men.
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God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.
……Paul Scherer
There has been only one Christmas;
The rest are anniversaries.
…….W.J. Cameron
It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
….W. T. Ellis
May your Christmas be as peaceful and as bright as new fallen snow.
…..Author Unknown
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and keep it all year.
……Charles Dickens
For the spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind.
…….Loring A. Schuler
He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
……. Roy L. Smith
The message of Christmas is that the visible material world
is bound to the invisible spiritual world.
……Author Unknown
What is Christmas?
It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.
It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal,
and that every path may lead to peace.
…….Agnes M. Pharo
The only blind person at Christmastime is;
he who has not Christmas in his heart.
……Helen Keller
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world,
in a conspiracy of love.
…… Hamilton Wright Mabie
Christmas ... is not an eternal event at all,
but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
…….. Freya Stark
Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries.
He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races.
He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.
……..George W. Truett
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