Today is Christmas Day. It is a day to share in the birth of Jesus Christ. While of course the Holy Bible does not designate today the day of His birth, thanks to those Christians that came before us, we celebrate it today.
In the spirit of Christmas, I thought that I would share a couple of stories, and the best explanation of Christmas I know.
First, this Christmas season showed some people were extremely generous and helping those less fortunate.
Several department stores have layaway programs. Essentially, for a processing fee and weekly payments, you can shop for items, make the payments and pickup when the payments are completed. Three major retailers have been doing this and they are K-Mart, Sears and WalMart.
Keep in mind that people who use layaway programs are not exactly well-off financially. Usually these are people that live paycheck to paycheck. If they are lucky.
There have been many stories of so-called Layaway Angels this Christmas season. They are people that go into a store and payoff one or two people's layaways. And that happened locally at a K-Mart in West Covina, California. In the linked article, a couple were just going to pay up to $150. But the husband said what ever $500 will pay off.
Amazing.
And in the article, someone paid off over 175 layaways at a Washington, D. C. K-Mart. And that totalled over $20,000.
In this day of serious economic hardship, it is wonderful to see so many people willing to do this act of kindness for so many who can not do for themselves.
Another bit of great news is to find out that many Islamic people in the So Cal area are not turned off by Christmas. In fact, many actually celebrate it in their own way.
According to this article, for many local Islamics, it is a way to assimilate with their neighbors. And they do not see having a Christmas tree as somehow debasing their religion.
In fact, in the Traband household, the family has a Christmas tree. Puts out treats for Santa. And treats for the family dog.
But they do not put any decidedly Christian ornaments on their tree.
And the mother, Sahira Traband, has what I believe is the right perspective for those who are not Christian yet partake in the holiday:
"The magic of Christmas is the part we celebrate."
Spot on, Sahira.
One does not have to be a Christian to get the message of the holiday as it has evolved. Especially in the United States.
People like this I think get it. While too many people have a bug about Christmas, I think that they should just go with it rather that fight something that can mean many things to different people.
And that leads me to this.
To me, this is the best explanation of the meaning of Christmas.
It is Linus Van Pelt giving the Gospel of Luke's account of the birth of Jesus. It is from the 1965 Christmas classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
Every year I watch it twice if I can. I often tell Mrs. RVFTLC that this special could never be made for television today. for it delivers the decidedly Christian message in the middle of the show.
Amazing.
But that is what Christmas should be all about. And for me is all about.
From the Right View From The Left Coast family, Mrs. RVFTLC and Scout the Wonder Dog, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
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