CHRISTMAS is once more upon us and is either getting earlier each year or I am getting older more quickly.
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This special season of the year is meant to be a celebration of Jesus’ coming into the world, a time of encouragement for us to practice giving to others in need, just as God gave us the gift of hope and life in His son.
I am finding it very difficult to reconcile what I see and hear around me as “Christmas”, for Jesus hardly gets a mention and the emphasis seems to be on “getting, rather than giving”.
Have we been deluded into throwing out the baby with the bath water?
Pardon the unintended pun.
Let me encourage parents and grandparents, too, to give at least one gift to the young children in their family which explains the real meaning of Jesus’ coming and help them to appreciate God’s gift to us.
Christmas without its central figure is meaningless, and all the gifts, gatherings and celebrations we experience will not bring the joy and peace we human beings long for.
Surely a part of our celebrations must include the giving to others whose needs are much greater than ours, whether in our own town or much farther abroad, those who will struggle to survive this Christmas. Such giving will bring life and hope, the very essence of God’s gift to us at the very first Christmas.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive”...no prizes for guessing who said that. Happy Christmas.
Jim Humphreys
Tamworth