Standing on my Soap Box

While I type that greeting “Merry Christmas”, I realize that those two words hold a lot of power. For some it is a greeting for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For some it is a greeting based on an alleged religious event that they want no part of. And for some it is a holiday regardless of spiritual ties that has caused either great joy or even greater pain. I know that the government is trying to cancel the whole Christ birth aspect and wanting us to switch from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays to be politically correct, or part of a “cancel culture”.

Before I continue, I want to give you my perspective on the holiday, just so you know where what I am saying comes from. I absolutely believe that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus who is the son of God. I also believe that we don’t know the actual birth date of Jesus, and this time of year has a lot of celebrations that are not Christ centered. Because I do not know the actual birth date, I choose to celebrate it when everyone else does, and I believe that God honors my heart’s decision to celebrate his son.

My goal in writing this blog is not to take away from the Christian meaning of Christmas, but to make you think. To be honest, when someone talks about Christmas my first response is that I don’t like Christmas, in fact I’ve been known to say that I hate it. I spent many years not being able to do everything I wanted to do around Christmas because too many things associated with the celebration had pagan influences. I remember one Christmas when our oldest was just a baby where I cried because we had no Christmas gifts bought on the morning of Christmas Eve. Not that we didn’t have the money, but because gifts weren’t “Christian” (Yes, I know three wisemen came and brought Mary and Joseph gifts, I am not the one who needed convincing.) That morning I had a crying fit and said that I was going to buy gifts whether he liked it or not – because that’s what Christmas was to me.

I also want to bring to your attention the number of people who have been lost throughout the year (or even in previous years), and they are missed. A lot of times the memories of Christmas’ past with my parents fall out my eyes and down my cheeks. I have 45 years of memories with my mom and dad and 4 years of memories with them not being here. Please understand I don’t want them back on earth with their deteriorating bodies and eyesight or lack of walking abilities. I am very glad that they can celebrate Jesus’ birthday with him with new bodies and perfect eyesight, but I still miss them greatly.

I remember a blog post a few years ago where I wrote about being in a hospital in Calgary where my uncle was dying. There was a gentleman who had cancer in his leg. It was early November and he had to decide if he was going to keep his leg and quite possibly pass away in a few weeks, or if he was going to have his leg amputated in order to (hopefully) have one last Christmas with his family. That Christmas his family was either grieving the loss of their husband and father, or they were grieving that this was quite possibly their last Christmas with their family member (barring some miracle healing).

There are also some people who have been a part of break ups, or family disputes around the holidays, and this time of year brings those memories back. A life they were dreaming of snatched out of their grasp by people who thought they knew better.

So, while you may have great memories, or all your family still around you, there are others who don’t, so please try to have understanding and leniency. You never know what battles or scars those around you are hiding. People need compassion NOT judgement. Sometimes a “bah humbug” is more a cry for love and acceptance than it is to be prickly. Love on people.

Oh, and even though over the years I have had a lot of things go wrong at this time of year, and I am still missing family who are no longer here, my plan this year is to have a great holiday with my children and four grandchildren.