The Heart Of Christmas

The Heart of Christmas

Last week we talked about the Spirit of Christmas, and I thought this week I’d share with you about what I’d like to call “The Heart of Christmas.”

But before I do, I’d like to share with you a story.

A couple of days before Christmas two men decided to go sailing while their wives went Christmas shopping. While sailing a violent storm came and tossed them about. As they headed toward a small inlet to ride out the storm, the boat hit a submerged rock and capsized. Clinging to the overturned boat, one man said to the other, “Today hasn’t gone exactly as we planned,” to which the other replied, “No, but it sure beats Christmas shopping.”

I cannot tell you how many stories I’ve heard about the horror of going Christmas shopping especially on Black Friday. They talk about how rude and inconsiderate the people are, and how they push and shove to get bargains with people actually falling to the ground.

One person I know was trying to get a special Play Station game on Black Friday. There was a single store employee passing them out one at a time, and there was a huge crowd surrounding him. Knowing that if he waited to move forward he never get one of the games, so he got on his hands and knees and crawled through the crowd of people until he was at the front, stood up, and the employee handed him one of the last ones still available.

It kind of reminds me of the 1996 movie, “Jingle All The Way,” as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad battle and fight trying to get the hot new action figure, “Turbo Man.” I think this show was taken from the real life scenario played out when everyone was going nuts trying to buy the very first Cabbage Patch doll

Now, I don’t know what the new hot toy is this year, but if past experience is any indicator, Amazon will probably have plenty of them, that along with it probably being substantially marked up.

All this to point out that somewhere along the way we’ve lost touch with the heart of Christmas.

In the past Christmas use to be a time of great joy and celebration at the birth of Jesus Christ, but now it is more of an excuse to eat more than we should, and to spend more than we have, and all of these excuses are centered around self-gratification.

Christmas is also a time that stirs intense and complex emotions remembering Christmases past with family and friends. But now loved ones have passed away, divorce has removed others from our lives, and some of friends are no longer friends given the politically charged atmosphere we find ourselves in. And so, we miss those who, in times past, made this day so special.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom. Christmas is also a time when some of our most cherished thoughts come from.

I love listening to the wonderful Christmas music. I love songs like, “What Child is this,” “Silent Night,” “Mary Did You Know,” and even some of the secular songs like “Winter Wonderland,” and Nat King Coles’ “Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire.” But I have to admit I sometimes get the wording a little mixed up, singing, “Jack Frost roasting on an open fire, chestnuts nipping at your nose.” Try singing that and go to bed, can we say “nightmares?”

I also enjoy the Christmas tree and ornaments that remind me of people and places that I’ve been.

I also enjoy seeing all the Christmas lights on the houses, and believe it or not, it makes me feel better that they did it and not me.

And I also enjoy the nativity sets. Even as I child I would play for hours with the wise men, shepherds, and the animals. But I was never allowed to play with the baby Jesus.

But over the years people have become too familiar with the Christmas holiday with all the business of buying and selling, giving and receiving. This familiarity has caused many people to overlook and even miss the vital meaning of Christmas for this crazy mixed-up world we live in.

We sing the hymns, but no longer know or understand the meaning behind them. We read the Christmas story but mistake it’s meaning because of all the “made-for-TV” specials. I think that people have mistaken Charles Dickens’, “A Christmas Carol,” or the TV special “A Christmas Story” with Ralphie, for the real story of Christmas, and that’s because these stories get a whole lot more airtime than the story of Jesus coming down to be born in a manger.

And so, the story of Christmas is quickly losing its meaning, if not the very heart of why it is even celebrated, if it hasn’t already. Today Christmas has become one long commercial holiday filled with fake joy and the wrong holiday spirits.