Every year I try to get all of my Christmas shopping
done early. Around the first of September I start planning and I make a pledge
that this year I will have all of my shopping done by the first of December so
that I can truly enjoy the Holiday Season.
If I get one thing a week by the time Thanksgiving rolls around I will
be in good shape and by the first I will be done. Well, at least that’s how the
plan goes.
December
first hits and once again I’m horrified to find out that I have picked up only one
or two things. That’s when the Panic sets in.
What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? When am I going to find
the time? Between work, family events, Church functions, and well life in
general, the precious days turn into hours, and the hours slip past like
seconds.
As if
the time issues were not enough you have to figure out what to get everyone on our
list. What do I get for Mom? What do I get for Uncle Herman? Who do I include?
Who do I leave off? Is a Gift card too impersonal? If I get her something that
she does not really want, am I going to get it back for next year’s Birthday?
From the
middle of October on we get it from all sides, Christmas displays and carols
hit you before the witches and goblins have disappeared and Thanksgiving turns
into an afterthought to the commercial aspect of the season. We are surrounded
by a cacophony of lights and sounds. Everywhere signs proclaim SALE!! SALE!!!
SALE! Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Door busters, and this year for the first time
stores are remaining open for days on end to extract the last pennies out of a
sluggish economy.
If you
are not careful the whole experience can cause even the most devoted to the
season to echo those immortal words,”Bah Humbug!” If you are not lucky you find yourself with
only an aversion to Christmas music, fifteen pounds that you cannot explain
where they came from, and a facial tick that won’t go away till Easter. Even
worse you can find that you have missed everything that Christmas has come and
gone without you being able to enjoy it at all.
All the
signs were there. You could not miss the trappings of this Christmas. The
venders busy hocking their wares, the shops filled to the roof tops. An air of
expectation and excitement fills the air; electric with the anticipation of
things to come. The people were rushing off to work and going about the
business of living. They missed all the signs, they were supposed to be
watching and waiting. But in the end they didn’t even see the star, the star
that heralded the coming of the Messiah.
Oh, it didn’t go totally unnoticed. There
were the lowly shepherds who would witness the birth of the Prince of Peace.
Not to mention those foreigners who traveled across deserts from the East.
Other than that very few people even noticed the first Christmas night. Few
could be bothered to interrupt their busy lives to celebrate the birth. The most awesome event in the history of
mankind came and went without it even showing up on anybody’s radar.
If we are
not careful we can fly through the holiday season and miss everything. No, I’m
not talking about the music or the presents; we can miss the meaning of the
season completely caught up in the tinsel and the lights, the hoopla and the
hype. We can miss celebrating the birth of our Savior. We can wind up missing
Jesus.
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