It's About People

I was in the grocery store and the mall yesterday. As I prepared for two parties at my house this next weekend I stood back and watched the harried shoppers rushing around.
I felt sad as I watched people being treated like machines, not human beings.

What is Christmas all about?
The wrapping paper?
The presents?
The food?
The songs?

Or, is it about the people? The people made in His image?
That little baby that lay wrapped in the warmth of the nearby hay, the baby that cried so we wouldn't have to, the baby that was born so we could live...now THAT is Christmas.

The food, the presents, the music...should all be used to enhance the gifts that we were already given...they should not be THE gift.

Pause a minute. As you rush through the grocery store, as you give unforgiving looks to the mother whose baby is tired and whining, honk at the car that pulled into the parking space that you were so impatiently waiting for...is that really the true meaning of Christmas?

Or is it the time you took to talk to the elderly person that is struggling to walk through the door? Is it the meal you brought to the person without a permanent address in your town? Is it the door you opened at the mall and the hand you laid on a stranger's arm to remind them that someone cares?

That baby that was born in the hay...let's step back and imitate the life He lived, the walk He walked and let's be a reminder to those who forgot the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas, child of the Child!