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Thursday, December 4, 2008 8:53 PM CST
Find the real meaning of Christmas in this economic downturn



I heard the latest gloomy economic news predicting a bad holiday for our nation’s retailers. People feel uncertain about their future and are not spending as much money on toys, or sweaters, or electronics for their Christmas gift-giving this year.

How can we possibly have Christmas without all the “stuff” we have gotten so accustomed to giving and receiving?

Perhaps part of the answer lies in the original story behind the holiday…the story of Christmas. You remember how the baby Jesus was born not in the delivery room at the hospital under the coverage of health insurance and not in a private suite at the Bethlehem Marriott, but in a barn…in a stable…in a feeding trough for smelly livestock?

So, I wonder, is it significant that the Savior of the world was born in such humble, make-do surroundings?

I think God might have been trying to tell us something…something important.

Maybe the whole thing happened the way it did so that we would realize that Christmas (and everything else in life that is real) is about seeing beyond our own needs and wants and success norms.

We don’t need all the trappings to grasp the bigger meanings in this life. Indeed, the trappings so often get in our way by keeping us so busy that we don’t allow ourselves to feel anything too deeply.

Maybe this year Christmas will be a bit slower, a bit quieter, a bit more prayerful. Maybe it will be holier.

Maybe it will happen in a church instead of a department store, or in a soup line for homeless people instead of a buffet line, or in your heart instead of your living room.

Maybe. Maybe this year, God. Maybe.


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