Christmas – a simple nine letter word that brings to mind so much! Love, family, joy, hope, gifts, shopping, money, and obligations are what come to mind, so much to do in so little time.
With the latter of these in mind, it is difficult to concentrate on what Christmas is truly meant to be. We forget that spending time with family is more important than gifts; we ignore the fact that most of what we think Christmas to be about is unnecessary. We neglect giving and showing our love and appreciation the rest of the year in order that we can compile it all up within a mere two weeks. Why do we celebrate and give only on holidays?
Throughout the year we tend to select days to show our love. Birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving – they are all days and times of the year that we use to represent our love and appreciation for one another. It is quite disappointing that we need to make up certain dates to care, to give.
Christmas is a time we have idolized as joy as well as a time to give. If we were to use every day as a time to give and a time to spread joy, Christmas would no longer be idolized. We wouldn’t need a reminder at the end of each year to give and to love, to be happy and give joy.
Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works.”
If we were to do this every day of the year, there would be no need to exhaust ourselves over two weeks. Giving, caring, joy and appreciation would come so naturally that Christmas wouldn’t need to be a big rush and busy time of the year. It would meet its full potential to bring families together and to enjoy each other’s presence. Instead of worrying about how much the holiday season would cost us, we would be able to concentrate on the one and only aspect of Christmas that brings everyone together, LOVE.
Merry Christmas!
– Shai Richardson is daughter of Clearwater Christian Church’s Wayne Richardson
