Perspective

When I was about 14 years old my mom stopped buying a Christmas tree for our home. She made the decision after my brother and I failed to take down the tree after being asked countless times, and once we finally did we complained the entire time. The tree didn’t stop the Christmas festivities in the coming years so my brother and I were quite unbothered by the whole ordeal. Fast forward to about 20 years old, my mom and brother joined a new church and thus they didn’t celebrate the holiday. My mom still bought us gifts and I would buy her gifts as well, but my brother refused to buy gifts although he received them. His argument to this very day is that he has said several times he does not celebrate the holiday so if you choose to give him a gift it would be rude not to accept. -_-

I haven’t truly been engaged in Christmas in the past couple of years due to being abroad and selfish. Honestly, I haven’t been a fan of the holiday season for a while now. I feel detached from Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can blame working in the world’s largest retail store on Black Friday a little and the rest is because my perspective has changed. I know what is important and spending hundreds of dollars, waking up, or cutting Thanksgiving short is just not it for me. Another thing that has impacted my perspective is living in China. China’s population is predominantly Buddhist so to see Christmas trees, Santa Clause, lights, and boxes wrapped in pretty paper is quite confusing to me. I know yes, I said predominantly and not all, but there are no signs of the Nativity Scene, or Easter in March or April, so your argument carries no weight here. Ok back to the matter at hand. I spoke to others about this strange phenomenon and they all said everyone likes gifts. That right there sums up what Christmas has become. I am guilty as well, but actually seeing my sin in my face and acknowledging that I like so many other Christians are behaving just like pagans has truly broken my heart and changed my perspective.

I pray that during this holiday season you realize the reason for your life, forget the season and focus on today. Today I challenge you to acknowledge Jesus’ birth and then ask yourself how often others receive gifts on your birthday! Yeah, never right unless you have a twin, triplet etc. I’m not telling you what to do, just sharing a piece of my heart with you.