DECEMBER 26, 2013

Christmas has just past and now that I'm alone, I'm making some observations.

There are lots more Christmas movies and specials than when I was a child.  I don't know if that is necessarily a good thing. I've noticed that most of these movies are rather sappy love stories. The usually have some sugary sweet moral about how the message of Christmas is all about love, family, or giving.  Those are all good things, but Christmas is about a birthday.

Christmas music is played more these days.  There are some stations that start playing it on Nov. 1. I love Christmas music as much as the next person, but "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" isn't what I'd really call music. In fact, many of the songs makes me want to grit my teeth. I miss the old carols that had depth and meaning.

When Christ is left out of Christmas a void remains. People try to fill is with sappy stories and cutesy songs. Children are taught traditions that have no connection to history.  Depth and feeling come from the celebration of the birth of the Savior.

KARMA, REALLY?

In America we like to believe that Karma (sort of) view that we get what we deserve. We have been taught to believe that if we do good, good will come to us. Life doesn't work that way. Bad things happen to good people.  Life just isn't fair.

Like a couple of weeks ago...

While I was doing something nice for someone else, something bad happened to me. If I had been at home I could have prevented the bad thing from happening.  I was upset for awhile, but that's the way life is.

As it turned out, I needed help from someone else to fix my problem. Maybe that's the way it works--we need each other.

I saw something interesting last night. I'm a part of  a group that put together a Christmas party for kids who really need a boost. We see them on a regular basis and really wanted to do something special over the holiday. The problem was, we didn't have the resources to do what we wanted, what the kids surely deserved.

Then God brought someone to one of the planners.  She told this mystery Santa about the kids and the Christmas party. This mystery person said that Jesus had blessed him and because of that, he wanted the children to be blessed, too.

When those 10 teens opened their stockings, they got the shock of their lives and I got to witness their surprised faces and share their hugs!  As I think about it, if we had pulled our resources and come up with the money, it would have been one thing. The Secret Santa made the night all the more special.

In life we don't always get what we deserve. Doing good things to get good things in return doesn't work--at least it doesn't for me. Doing good things because it is the right thing to do, doing good things out of love, that's another story.