In this Christmas season it’s  been easy for me  to get lost in the commercial materialistic hype thrust upon us by professional marketers after our dollars more than our happiness, contentment or joy.  Just sayin’.  Add to the stress of shopping for the items on the lists of children ( which is  no longer in our wheelhouse with our children grown and married), there is the brain stretching (exhausting) exercise of staying within a budget, not breaking the bank and finding the perfect gift for those who have everything, or those we don’t know well enough to know how to shop for them. (which, as we have aged, we have pared down considerably) It’s been  easy for me to fall into a less than cheerful mindset about a holiday that has become much different than I imagine the original intention to have been. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas for an encyclopedic history of the celebration.) 

In addition to all of the above difficulties the holiday poses there is another concern, which is that of the promotion of an already over abundance of a personal need to accumulate stuff.  It starts early in a child’s life when we set out to teach those innocent ones about the holiday of gift giving, showering upon them a multitude of presents to open on a designated morning from underneath a decorated evergreen tree, or symbol of one.  Then there is the progression, a need to fulfill the dreams and desires of older children influenced by TV commercials and storefronts advertising the latest and greatest toy or game they are convinced they cannot live without. And we feel the pull to be “good” parents, making every effort to provide an abundant Christmas full of presents and food to make all our loved ones happy. As if the more presents given is an indication of more love.   Again, we’ve grown out of that era.

Am I jaded in my thinking?  Yup.  Taking a look back, and all around I’m seeing elevated stress levels, more social commitments than one could possibly find time for, parties, and gatherings that rarely give attention to what is touted as the focus of the holiday.  I find no fault in celebrating, enjoying food and fellowship of friends and loved ones.  But don’t try to make me believe it’s in honor of the birth of my Lord and Savior when His only function is to be symbolized by a ritualistic reading of the Scripture describing his birth, if that much is done.  A brief reference to His birth, shepherds and wise men, a manger etc.  I am sad that I’ve let it become that in my own mind and practice.

What a poor excuse Christmas has become, for honoring the One who came to redeem fallen man. Maybe it’s just in my own feeble life this is the case.  I have worked through the “I want” stage, coped with the “give as much as we can to fulfill the Lists” era, and in my old age have discovered no amount of gifts can take the place of the true joy and contentment found in knowing that Babe in a manger on a personal level, all grown up, having lived a perfect life to be my example of how to have the greatest gift of all, which is His peace through a relationship established by His death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave. Redemption. 

The lessons I’m learning of late have been more of the nature of focusing on the joyful spiritual aspects of life rather than what is the stark reality of coping with the ravages of time on these mortal bodies.  (tongue in cheek, we’re still all in 1 piece and able to be upright and move about…some days more slowly than others!)   

So the conclusion to the dire summation of the Christmas Ghosts is just this:

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Albert Barnes Commentary says:

“In every thing give thanks – We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear dark and frowning..… So we may praise God for everything that happens to us under his government. A man owes a debt of obligation to Him for anything which will recall him from his wanderings, and which will prepare him for heaven. Are there any dealings of God toward people which do not contemplate such an end? Is a man ever made to drink the cup of affliction when no drop of mercy is intermingled? Is he ever visited with calamity which does not in some way contemplate his own temporal or eternal good! Could we see all, we should see that we are never placed in circumstances in which there is not much for which we should thank God. And when, in his dealings, a cloud seems to cover his face, let us remember the good things without number which we have received, and especially remember that we are in the world of redeeming love, and we shall find enough for which to be thankful.

For this is the will of God – That is, that you should be grateful. This is what God is pleased to require you to perform in the name of the Lord Jesus. In the gift of that Saviour he has laid the foundation for that claim, and he requires that you should not be unmindful of the obligation; “

(Emphasis mine)

Heb 13:15     By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.