A Deeper Meaning

BEFORE

It’s Christmas night and there are toys and other gift remnants scattered all over my living room and kitchen. There was a lot of gift giving at our house this year.
As I sit here and ponder Christmas while looking over all the stuff I think how sad it is that this is Christmas for most people, especially children.
It’s the “look what I got!” and the “what did you get?” It’s about the brightly colored paper and bows under the Christmas tree and the anticipation of what’s hidden beneath.
But Christmas night comes and the toys are left on the ground, little bits of paper still litter the floor and the kids drift off to sleep dreaming about their new toys that will break or be forgotten within the year.
Most of them have no thought about the real gift of Christmas or why we set this day aside in the first place.
I heard a statistic that said more kids believe in Santa than Jesus. I weep for them.
I weep for a generation that doesn’t know the Truth.
And then I think of the toys that are spread out across the floor and I pray.
I pray that as Lydia grows and experiences more Christmases that her experience will go far deeper than the gifts around the tree. I pray Christmas will mean so much more to her than a list she makes of things she wants and expects to get.
Oh, Lord, give us wisdom to teach her.
Help us guide her to a deeper knowledge of the real reason of the season so she will find a joy and excitement in the gift of her Savior wrapped in baby flesh and not just toys she will break, outgrow or not even play with.
And may we, as her parents, not get caught up in that same trap. Oh, what an easy trap to get wrapped up in. Buying gifts, wrapping gifts, sending gifts, money issues, having our own list of wants. Adults are just as prone to forget why we celebrate. Christians are just as prone.
I wonder if that makes Jesus sad. I wonder what He thinks about what we’ve made of His coming to earth.
The wonder of God coming down in tiny flesh to become a man and die for US.
And this is what we make it? This is what we teach our children?
It should be so much more!
Christmas should be fun. And I love all the traditions and celebration as much as anyone. I really love Christmas. But I want to love Christmas for more than worldly traditions and festivities. I want to teach Lydia that it’s so much more.
Oh, Lord, help us.

AFTER