Early Season Christmas Thoughts
While growing up, we have been taught that giving gifts was the central theme of Christmas.
Not quite Jesus, not quite justice, but the simple act of giving.
We’re taught, in order to hold the spirit of Christmas true, we must be happy and give willingly. We seem to have missed the point… or rather; we seem to have failed to complete the thought.
I listened to a children’s play today in which the actors discover the true meaning of Christmas is giving. This revelation happens, of course, after they break down into a fight over who gets to do what and so forth (a representation of our greed during the Christmas Season). This play exemplified the underlying theme that we continue to drive home to each successive generation: The act of giving is simply enough. It also continues the cycle of Bad Theology spreading down to our children.
I remember, during Christmas’s past, being given money so that I could then buy gifts for my family. The idea starts as a gesture of “love” and “appreciation” with the gift exemplifying the heart of the giver, but in the end, the gift given was simply something un-needed by the receiver, and probably cast away in a pile of Junk that grows with each successive season. My wife accurately described Christmas (at least within the circles we run in) as “A season that celebrates the accumulation of (choice word).”
The end result of our current ideal, that we should give, and give freely, has turned into an act in which we continue to attain more Junk. We are simply expected to give gifts; it is no matter what the gifts are, as long as they are given. Any attempt to give meaningful gifts is often met with resistance, and any attempt not to give gifts, as the receiver has no need for a gift within your financial ability, is seen as an act of hostility. These feelings, that we must give gifts, continue to place us in a cycle of debt and cause a continual feeling of dread, when you have very little money to devote to the purchase of Junk.
To what end does the cycle lead us? Our we truly celebrating the birth of Christ, or are we celebrating our ability to purchase (an ability that we are fast losing, yet refuse to give up) We seem to have confused two separate stories into one, the story of the Birth of Christ, and the story of St. Nicholas. In the end this confusion causes considerable hurt towards the heart of both stories.
I’ll not lay out the details of each story right now, for that would be a better post for another day (and has already been done by others), instead I will pass this wish, or perhaps better stated this blessing over the gift giving this Christmas season:
May you bestow gifts with no expectation of return, for that is the true meaning of gift.
May you accept gifts with no guilt towards repayment, for that is the best gift to the giver.
May any gifts you give be meaningful, for the world has enough junk.
May any gifts you receive be put towards good use, for again, we have too much junk.
May you keep at heart both stories we celebrate during this season, for they both have much to speak to our hearts.
Grace and Peace
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