As December 25 falls on a Saturday, this is our Christmas issue. This promises to be the longest Christmas week. Many will choose to spend this time to go shopping while there will be others who might want to travel. Still, there will be others who would opt to just chill out these next few days. There are many ways to spend Christmas but it would also be good to remember why we are celebrating it.
Christmas is not just another of the too many holidays in this country, as the business sector would put it. The reason we celebrate Christmas is because we are a Christian nation, or we call ourselves Christians. For Christians, this holiday signifies the birth of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. This was the start of our culture of gift-giving. God himself gave us His only son as a gift to the entire world.
You may not be a deeply religious person but that will not stop you from enjoying Christmas. We share the meaning of Christmas when we give of ourselves to others. We can give gifts, our time or our talent.
We may also try thanksgiving. We Filipinos don’t have the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. but nothing should stop us from spending Christmas to give thanks to the source of all our blessings this past year. This is the time we count our blessings and reflect on how good life has been and how good life will be in the year to come.
Reflecting on and being thankful for our blessings is not necessarily because we had everything going our way but because we have chosen to do something to adapt to whatever situation life has in store for us.
Christmas is also a time when we revitalize our direct line to God. When was the last time you really poured out your heart to God in prayer? This could be the first time in years for many of us.
The point of celebrating Christmas is to emerge refreshed and more determined to take on life’s challenges for the coming months with the assurance that the same Jesus Christ, who has been our help in ages past, would be our hope for years to come.