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Be Christmas all year long

December

I remember a time when I was in Hawaii just before Christmas.
Everyone was saying Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas), and the Christmas spirit
was there even if the snow was not.
Many Christians are disturbed about society saying ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Seasons
Greetings’ instead of Merry Christmas.
I occasionally get "AFA ActionAlert" (spam) Emails apprising me of retail stores,
government agencies, etc. who are deleting Christian words: ‘Christmas and God’ from
buildings, signs, advertising, etc.
Christmas is the reason for the season (Duh!). But in this ‘do not step on anyone’s
toes’ - political correctness world we live in, I feel it’s only a matter of time before the
season becomes homogenized.
I wondered about Christmas in other countries and found that 300M Russian speakers
say Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestiva i s Novim Godom – (Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year)! 200M Arabic speakers say Merry Christmas this way: ‘I’D Miilad
Said’. And more than 400M Israelis say Mo’adim Lesimkha (Merry Christmas) in
Hebrew.
So, we all know how to say Christmas in many languages.
And I think most of us know that Christmas is celebrated as the day Jesus, the Christ
was born.
So, I guess, what we ALL need to do, is to ‘BE Christmas’ (©Dr. Ira Zepp)!
No matter what country in which you were born or now live.
No matter what language you speak.
No matter what religion you practice.
The word, PRACTICE may be the key here!
Do you PRACTICE your religion?
Loving God, loving your fellow man as yourself, and giving to those in need seem to
be the basis of each religion I know about.
Our universal problem though is that we only ‘BE Christmas’ from Thanksgiving to
st
January 1 .
Maybe that is why there is so much depression after Christmas.
Oh! I know all that sugar and rich traditional food, can depress you and put a
whammy on your lymph system, so that you catch the flu in January, but I’m talking
about the big change from people ‘BEing Christmas’ to reverting back into the doldrums-
living where people barely smile or even say hello.
I wonder what would happen if we kept ‘BEing Christmas’ the whole year long,
whether there was snow or not?
At Stone Chapel we placed brown paper bags in the fellowship hall - named
‘Affirmation Bags’.