No More Presents! First Christmas for 2011

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     I wish Christians me included really believed that Christmas is about celebrating and not about stuff!  Know how I know most of us say this, but rarely believe it...  Well, because the season that is suppose to be causing us to celebrate is causing most of us stress, and we entirely miss the point of it all...  We say we know it isn't about much we spend, then why we are charging things we can't afford to purchase?  Why do we book our lives with events that have little to do with who the celebration is for!  Sometimes to be honest, I wish that gift giving was not part of the deal.    Don't get me wrong I find joy in giving and getting, as much as anyone, but what if you never got another gift, you would be fine right?  Really stop and think about it.  You and I already have God with us!  We already have God IN us!  We have an unending hope!  Friday I went Christmas shopping, and while I had great time with my friend who took me shopping, I later found myself stressing over how much I should spend on who and what I should buy The gift that mattered on the shopping trip, was not the gifts I bought, but time spent with my friend who I rarely see at other times in the year!  I still don't have my mom's Christmas present, and I wish I did though her birthday presents are bought for December 15th, but as Christmas nears the clock is ticking.  Then I was reminded it's not suppose to be about us!  Jesus is to be the central focus, not only of Christmas, but of all things!          "He (meaning Christ) is before all things and in him all things hold together."  Col 3:17.  God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus Christ." See Col 3:20.    Jesus is the gift we as Christians are to celebrate forevermore.  We are to celebrate that the one who is above all became one of us.  It led him to death upon a cross, and then we celebrate not the manger, but the empty tomb.  That is the gift!  No other compares!  Do our lives point to a gift temporal value, or The gift who is THE GIFT?!  May it be more than lip service to us, but may the reality awe us to view Christmas differently and more clearly than before!     Merry Christmas!  I hope The Gift" is yours and that you honor him as such!