To a lot of people, Christmas means several things..spending money you don't have on overpriced presents for your family,
baking Christmas cookies, having loved ones come home so you can spend the holiday together as a family, and singing songs like "Jingle Bells" or "Deck The Halls".
But while we do some of the above in OUR family, we don't do a lot of shopping at the stores (we do ours via catalog or over the Internet; in fact, we start EARLY, like in July..we HAVE to, what with all of the children in our family!), and we don't play a lot of the "commercialized" tunes on our stereo at home. While the majority of the songs are nice or pleasant to listen to, we try to focus on the TRUE meaning of Christmas, which is celebrating the Birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, so long ago. We play the songs that identify most with this event, songs like "O Holy Night", "Silent Night", "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", and "Joy To The World". We also bake a birthday cake, and we offer prayers of thanksgiving and praise to our Saviour as our Gifts to Him. We also participate in the annual Christmas pageant at our church, and we go around the neighborhood, singing carols for our neighbors. We've done this the past several years, and our kids enjoy it, and so do our neighbors.
It seems like Christmas nowadays has gotten way too commercialized; no longer do you hardly hear the carols being played. All one hears nowadays are the songs about jingling bells, Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph, or songs about winter. You hardly ever hear the words "Jesus" or "God" anymore; and too many times "Christmas" is referred to as "Xmas". It's as though people are trying to remove the very essence of God or Jesus from the holiday, and it breaks our hearts; because Christmas ISN'T about shopping or spending money: it's about how Jesus came to this world so He could offer His Free Gift of Eternal Life and Salvation. THAT was why He was born in the first place; God, his Father, was tired of all the sin and deprivation in the world, so He took matters into His Own Hands, and as a result, His Son, Jesus, was born; and the world was forever changed in that instant. And Jesus chose to DIE for our sins; He was brokenhearted about our fall into sin; and so HE chose to die on a Cross for OUR sins and transgressions! He loved us THAT much!
Yet, the world goes on, as though Jesus doesn't exist. People don't seem to care about Him anymore unless they were raised with His Teachings or raised in a Christian environment. To these people, Jesus is alive and well (which He IS), but the majority of the world would rather go without Him; and they seem to shun anyone who DOES believe. This is why the world is in such a sad state of affairs; it's as though Satan has taken over, and man has done so much damage because of this. To many, Christmas is no longer holy; it's just another ordinary day, and to many, it's nothing but a big bother.
But, as Christians, it is up to people like myself and my family to tell others about Jesus; and it is up to us to preach His Word and hopefully bring others to Him. Yet, because of our faith, we are often met with rejection, intolerance, or outright disdain. We are often ostracized, and we are often rebuked; but Jesus was rebuked when HE was on this earth; yet, He never gave up hope.
We, as Christians, must do the same, especially around this time of year, when love, hope, and joy are so important, and the significance of this holiday matters. Jesus never gave up; we mustn't either.
JESUS. He is the TRUE meaning of CHRISTmas. He is the Reason for the Season!
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A delightful story of a needy family of squirrels who are kicked out of their village, because of their tattered clothes and nests.
Abandoned and in search of friends to accept them, they travel many roads of r
