The Meaning of Christmas ~ Part Two

People say children is what Christmas is all about. But are we not all children ~ did we not all come into this world with parents (whether we were raised by them or not, we were someone’s child)? So, if Christmas is for children it should not matter whether it is your first day on earth or your last, Christmas and its meaning should always remain magical and precious in our hearts.

This time of year should be a celebration of a gift we were given when we were perhaps still brilliant stars in the sky, just waiting our turn to come down to earth. A gift that our creator (known in my part of the world as God) gave to us in the form of one brave and most blessed soul, to teach/remind us of forgiveness, faith, belief, and unconditional love. Whether you believe he was just a human like you and I, or what we were taught as children that he was conceived through an immaculate conception and was the son of God, in my humble opinion he was both. For are we all not children of the creator and did he not bleed as we all do?

As children many of us were either taught about this wonderful gift we were given, or we learned about it through other children who had learned this at school or through their parents. Yet, somehow the celebration of this precious gift became tangled up with Santa Claus and getting “material gifts”. Listen I’m not casting any stones, for I also have enjoyed nothing more than receiving gifts and a full stocking on Christmas morning. Even in the 4 post accident Christmas I have been blessed to celebrate, gifts remained a huge part of how the celebration of Christmas was defined, yet for some reason this Christmas is different. As I approach my 5th Christmas post accident, I want more … yes MORE from this time of celebration, than just filling the cash registers and padding the bottom line of retailers all across the country and thanks to the wonderful world of technology , the world.

This year I want that magical feeling of celebrating the birth of the blessed soul, whose purpose was to teach/remind us of how blessed we were and that we exist, because our creator wanted us to learn to give and love as well as to receive and allow others to love us. Somewhere along the way, using our “free will” we thought that we no longer needed the creator and when things didn’t quite work out the way we wanted them too … we remembered him , only to cast blame or to don’t his existence. But our creator so believed in us and loved us that he chose one of us to try and show us the way. We would learn his name to be Jesus … and he was born to this earth to help us, a gift from our creator. I won’t get into how we treated this precious gift we were bestowed (I’ll leave that for Easter), but I will say ~ Thank You!

I think the true meaning of giving has lost its definition. At the HHL household this year, we will be giving blankets; goats; fruit trees; one year school supplies for little ones; soccer balls etc. to children who are not as fortunate as the children we buy gifts for every year ~ who have the latest of everything and more ~ on behalf of them via Plan Canada and World Vision holiday giving opportunities, through which Mr. G and I sponsor children. Our little Angels will still be receiving a gift to open Christmas morning along with the certificates of what was donated on their behalf, it will just be something more practical then the latest electronic toy, or gadget.

This year I will be asking each little one what Christmas really represents ~ and Santa Claus or getting presents is not the answer I will be looking for. I hope that this helps to make the little Angels in our lives a little more aware of giving and not receiving… for the real gift is the feeling they will get to see someone smile.

So, I would like to end this post with; this year as you go to empty out your wallets on material things, please stop and think about the family down the street, that will go cold this winter , because they need to eat and there isn’t enough money for both; the children that will not go to school, because they have no winter clothes; the children who will wake up Christmas day wondering why Santa didn’t stop by their house ~ like the other children, leaving them thinking they must be really naughty to not have even received a lump of coal ~ which they could perhaps have used to keep warm if for only a minute. Then I would like you to think about one thing that you or your child could really do without ~ and take that same amount of money and help make a difference in the life of a child or family.

There will be a Part Three in the days to come. For Part One click here.