To you who "do not believe in Christmas", I've heard it all. I've heard, "It's not Christmas I don't believe in but the "commercialization" of it all", I've heard, "It's not Christmas I don't "believe" in giving gifts one day a year, I do it all year", I've heard, "Jesus wasn't even born in December. This is just a pagan holiday." I've heard it all. But have you ever stopped to think about WHY we celebrate Christmas. Yes, yes, we celebrate Christmas because of Christ. We all know that. But where did Christmas come from? We always hear "Christmas is a time for giving" and "Christmas is a time for miracles." And you argue, "shouldn't that be all year?" Yes, it should. And it can. And for many of us it IS. But Christmas...what does it mean? Christmas = The mass of Christ. Christ = Christ, the son of God who was born in a manger to a virgin and who was the greatest of teachers at merely a child of 13. He was the only pure sinless human to ever be born on this earth. Let me stop here, isn't that someone worthy of a short season in our short lives? And then we have mas. Mas = a conjugate of the Latin word mittere which means "to send." So we celebrate Christmas which literally means "To send Christ." And you are telling me that "you don't believe that"? My husband and I personally do things all throughout the year to "send Christ" and we keep Christ alive in our household all year long but what is so wrong in sending Christ at a time set aside specifically to send Christ's love? I see nothing wrong with setting aside a time of the year when everything we do is with conscious effort of praising God. Should we do it all throughout the year as well? Yes. Of course! But I truly believe that He smiles, as we do, when we set aside a specific time of the year to glorify Him and rejoice Him with others. After all God said Himself in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them." If nothing else at all, this is a time where we are Christians gather together to give presents, be it knowingly or secretly, as a way to show our love for Christ to our brethren. I, personally, love giving gifts! Of course it is always nice to receive but until you have received the greatest gift of all that which is Christ and you have seen the joy on a child's face when they receive something they were not expecting or you experience the joy of providing for a family that otherwise would not be able to will you fully understand the love that comes from sharing Christ's love. So you may think that presents are bought and given out of "commercialization" but maybe, just maybe, you are missing the point or maybe you have never accepted Christ's love when he has tried to give it to you. Either way, don't criticize those of us who "do up Christmas big" or "go all out." Chances are we are doing it for the right reasons, we are doing it to show that we have been blessed and would like to bless you, or maybe we have been given that "nudge" from God to buy that specific or "one more" gift. We are not doing it for the glory, we are doing it because we have been led to do so and we like to see your face when you realize "Hey, in all of the crazy that is life, for a mere minute they thought of me."
