A hungry child will wake up on Christmas morning, not to Christmas presents under a tree but to a drunk or drugged out parent passed out on the couch and with nothing in the refrigerator or the kitchen cabinets to eat.
A conservative pastor will get up before his congregation the Sunday before Christmas and talk about how liberals and atheist continue trying to take the word “Christmas” out of the holidays, before he heads off in his Mercedes to his mansion in a wealthy neighborhood to celebrate Christmas with his family. He likes to call it, “The War on Christmas.”
Yes, there will be a lot of giving over the holidays to the needy. Missions will open their doors to the needy and feed hundreds of thousands, the well-to-do will write huge checks to help buy that food and gifts too, and they will feel like they have done their part for the Christmas season. Oh, the joys of giving, if only for one season out of the whole year, just to relief the guilt of selfishness all year-long.
A family will gather around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning and exchange gifts to each other, a warm and wonderful time for sharing with the ones you love.
A lonely beggar will lie down in an alleyway for the last time and die from the bitter cold, on a lonely Christmas Eve night. His family, if he has any, far away, will be enjoying their own Christmas around the Christmas tree, and will know nothing and perhaps care nothing too.
A hostage held by Islamic extremist will say a prayer, hoping that someone will rescue him or her before Christmas arrives, so that he or she can be with his or her family like so many holiday seasons before. Instead, death comes, by his or her beheading, in the name of a god that cares nothing about his or her prayer. Only death waits, no yuletide Christmas cheer.
A bomb will go off somewhere, in a church, a synagogue, a mosque, an abortion clinic, or even a gay bar, killing innocent people, including maybe children, all in the name of God, though they call him Jehovah, Yahweh or Allah, all on some Christmas day, or another holy day, or does it even matter?
Christmas brings hope for many and hopelessness for others. Some are just happy to see Christmas pass and life to return to normal, because it means nothing to them but heartache and loneliness, or at least a reminder of the loneliness they have felt all year-long, perhaps for many years that have passed already.
Christmas has become a huge commercial project that simply brings huge profits into the hands of businesses, as so many spend huge amounts of money on buying presents for their loved ones and Christmas decorations to light up their homes and businesses, with huge electric bills to follow.
Jesus was born in a manger so that he could bring light into a world of darkness. We might celebrate Christmas to honor that day, when such a man, though you believe in his deity or not, brought compassion where there was no compassion. Yet, we dishonor him when all year-long we fail to reach out to the lives of those who have fallen beneath life’s burdens, as Jesus himself fell beneath the cross he carried up that hill to Calvary.
Long ago, I stopped going to church, not because I quit believing in the man, and the deity, Jesus Christ as the son of God, but because I could no longer find him in the hearts of so many of those who attended those churches. I would hear a minister talk about how prayer had been taken out of school but nothing to say for all the hate and self-righteous piety he and his own church members carried in their hearts for the very sinners Jesus came here to save.
In the early days of Christianity, Christians were fed to the lions; their faith gave them courage to stand against such horrible deaths. Many of the original Disciples of Christ died horrible deaths, standing true to their faith, refusing to deny their steadfastness in Christ. If Christianity is failing, it is because those who claim the mantle of Christianity have failed to lift the true Christ up before humankind.
Preachers who harp about nonbelievers attacking Christmas should look to their own example of Christ and their own failure to show the true Jesus to the world. One thing I do know; nonbelievers have no problem with Jesus, just with those who claim to represent him. Even comedian, and well-known atheist Bill Maher, may not like religion and what it has brought to the world but when it comes down to the man, Jesus himself, he has no problem with, just those who claim to follow him.
It is easy to love Christmas and all the wonderful joy it brings us, that is if you have family and loved ones to share it with, in a nice house, under a beautiful Christmas tree with all the lights flickering. Yet, the true Christ is still back at that manger because there was no room for him in the Inn, with compassion for even the least of us, who also have no room in the hearts of churchgoing so-called Christians. He does not care if we say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”, only that we love our neighbor as ourselves and show compassion for the least of us – especially for the least of us – all year-long.
If the true Christ lives in our hearts, no monster or monsters can take that away from us. Terrorist would have no one to terrorize, if every hungry mouth was fed, every lonely soul content and poverty no longer existed upon the face of the earth. Love conquers all, though it is through Christ or through whatever religion or non-religion we believe in or stand by.
The true monsters of Christmas is not atheist or sinners or even terrorist, but selfishness, self-righteousness, greed, bigotry, hate and a lack of faith in the true nature of Christ. The true spirit of Christmas is love, compassion and an open heart to all, no matter what their religion, ethnicity, race, color of skin, or even their sexual orientation.
For me, all l I can say is, if you call yourself a Christian let the true compassion of Christ shine within you, and watch as all the weapons formed against you fail. Then it will be Christmas for us all, all year-long, and then the monsters that would destroy us will tremble in fear, then run and hide from that very bright and shining light, that shines in us all.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place