I love Christmas.
I love the lights.
I love the decorations.
I love the music.
I love the movies.
I love Christmas cookies.
I love the sound of bells.
I love spending time with loved ones.
But this year, as with most before, I look around and I don't like what I see.
Because what I see is not a picture of cheer and love and hope and faith and togetherness.
What I see is greed.
What I see is excess.
What I see focuses more on what's beneath the tree than it does who's sitting around it.
What I see is kids learning that the list they write to Santa is what Christmas is all about.
I was recently in a conversation about Christmas shopping that led to me talking about why I hate Christmas shopping. I hate it because in most cases it exemplifies everything that is wrong with this season. We give each other lists of things that we don't actually need. We spend money on trivial things that the people we buy them for people could buy themselves.
Does your kid need that $500 Xbox?
Do you need that iphone 5s or whatever you're asking for?
No matter what it is, in most cases, if we really needed it we would buy it for ourselves. If we wanted it bad enough, we'd buy it ourselves.
So why do we spend so much money on people that already have so much?
How much of a difference could we make in our own community and the world if we took all of that money and spent it people who actually might need it? How many kids out there would know they are loved and that there are good people in this world if they got even just a small gift? How many families need something to eat this year? How many people don't even have a coat to keep them warm this winter?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I handle Christmas perfectly either. I made my Christmas list when I was asked to. But now I'm wishing I hadn't. I'm wishing I'd asked for the money that was going to be spent on buying me things to go toward adopting a kid for Christmas instead. Or to a million other places besides into things. Things that I don't need.
I am of the belief that nothing in this world really belongs to us anyway. It belongs to the One who created it all, we are just stewards. We are just the hands to do His work according to His purpose. What better time than when we're celebrating the birth of our Savior to reach out and show His love by focusing on others?
So my challenge to you, and for myself, is to make it more. Make Christmas a time for love, hope, cheer, togetherness. Find out what you can do to make the world a little bit better and do it, all the time. Let this Christmas be a kick starter for a lifetime of doing more for others than for you.
'Tis the season, so let's make it count.
