A SACRED CHRISTMAS

     One of the eternal battles is the flesh versus the spirit.  The war is waged in every life, whether people know it or not.   It could not be any clearer than the Christmas season.  The flesh (that is our world and culture) fights to make Christmas secular (that is devoid of any spiritual significance).  However the spirit strives for simplicity and silence, with an inward focus on values and the purpose of life and God.

     I remember as a kid, not wanting to spoil our Christmas gift exchange with Bible accounts of Jesus’ birth or prayer or anything of deeper meaning.  I just wanted the focus to be “me” getting what I wanted from my parents who were faking a Santa Claus mystery.  As a kid, Christmas was clearly about “me”.  Well, maybe my sister Linda (6 years my senior) got a thought or two from me, but not much.

     Even as an adult and father to Andy and Amy, I wanted Christmas to be about “them”.  I was a little deeper in thought, but I wanted my kids to have stuff, and to know their parents loved them.  I must confess, I stuck the Christmas story in, but I did it dutifully and not because I really wanted too!

     But now as an old man (well not that old, just because I’m looking more like Santa Claus doesn’t make me that old), I see the secular push everywhere.  I see “meism” winning and the spirit losing.  I want Christmas to be a sacred Christmas for ‘me and mine’ and for ‘you and yours’.

     May you have a ‘sacred’ Christmas!