Why I Hate Christmas!

Or...more probably...why I hate what we've been told and sold Christmas should be.

Perfect.

Obedient, grateful children.

No sibling rivalry.

Baking gingerbread houses and never thinking of themselves first.

Houses that are immaculate and festively decorated for all the dinner parties and carolers who drop by.

Every Christmas card remembered and sent in time.

Every charity given to.

Perfect gifts bought and wrapped with matching paper, bow and tag.

No thoughtless words falling from our mouths on ears that will never forget.

More money left at the end of December than the other way around.

Relationships restored.

Miracles performed.

But...

it isn't that way.

And if it were, there wouldn't be a need for a Savior.  And Christmas wouldn't be celebrated all around the world. 

Which is why I love Christmas.

A reason to celebrate.

A need so great we can't fill it.

We can't shop it away.

Eat it away.

Drink it away.

Overdose or pop pills it away.

We can't love it away.

It is a need every human heart feels.

Some ignore or deny...

but that hole is there.

A hole that can only be filled by a knowing who we are, because of Who He Was-Is-and Will Be.

A silence of all our internal clamoring that can only be given when we stand before Him in our own silence of the heart, mind and might.

I love Christmas because it is a Beginning that has an End.

An End to pain.  Fighting.  Anger.  Jealousy.  Bitterness.  Loneliness.  Depression.  Fear.  Hate.

It is a long time coming, that's true.

But there is a purpose in the Plan.

So I think it's okay to hate all of the things we're told and sold Christmas should be.  Because these things really take us away from the meaning of it all...that we are imperfect and have a Need.

And that Need knew this and was willing to come and be like us, talk like us, feel like us...to understand us and help us understand Him.

In the end, the Beginning is a glorious thing to be celebrated!

And in the Beginnind, the End was already known and chosen to be experienced anyway.

For love.

Merry Christmas all!

Peace that passeth understanding and Love that knows no limits be yours in 2010!