So this is Christmas.
About a month or so ago, when all the questions of "What do you want for Christmas?" began, I sat down one day to think about that very question. What do I want for Christmas? Socks, underwear, clothes, food? These are all things I need, but I have them all in abundance, heck I even have a job and I can afford to buy these things for myself. So I have what I "need", Then what do I "want"? A new Mini Cooper "S", Playstation 3, a new iPod? What good is any of that? I am just making a list for one reason only, so that people can buy me something. Why is our society so consumeristic? I don't really want any of that.
If you would have asked me a month ago what I wanted for Christmas, I would have told you that I have everything that I "need" and I would be selfish to make a list of things that I "want". Therefore, what I would have told you is that I want someone else in this world who is not as fortunate as I am to have what they "need" for Christmas. That is what I "want", I want others to have what they "need". So I made sure that everyone who was going to be getting me something for Christmas knew what I wanted and to get me something from MCC's Christmas Giving Project. (http://www.mcc.org/christmas/)
I hope and pray that my Christmas Present this year will help make a difference in this world.
The real reason for today...
What do I want for Christmas? Ask me today and I will tell you. I want something that was already given to me. I want the "gift" that I have had all along.
Have you ever remembered loosing one of your favorite toys growing up? You spend hours, days, and weeks looking for it. Then time goes by along with the sadness of loosing it, until you begin to forget you ever even had it. Then one day, there it is under your bed all along, everything comes back to you. You are filled with overwhelming joy. Possibly even greater joy than when you received the toy in the first place because now it has become much more to you.
That is how I feel. I have lost the importance of God's Love in my life. In the past Christmas's have gone by. They all seem the same. Christmas to me became this trite holiday, the same thing year after year, I knew the story, I knew the songs. What I was loosing though was the "real" reason. And I knew the "Sunday School" answer (Because God so Loved the world He sent his one and only Son).
Yesterday, the Christmas Eve service at my church spoke to me, to slow down, to look past all the "plastic" holiday traditions that we have put on Christmas, to listen to God, to reflect on the real reason of Christmas. In the stillness of that silent night 2000 years ago, God sent His Son. As I sat there reflecting I could not help but think that the Christmas Story is not any different than the Easter Story and that the two of them together make sense. Christmas time is the "beginning" It is God's love come to earth for us. We are not perfect and we will never be able to make our lives worthy enough for God. But because of His love for me, This Christmas I have received the BEST Christmas Present. It was not what I asked for, but it was what God knew I needed, His Love.
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