Once again we approach that time of year we celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus.
Here in North America Christmas is an orgy of spending and greed as people beg for things they often don’t need and go into debt giving gifts people haven’t even asked for. The origin of the celebration has been lost, overlaid, and ignored as commercialism and secularism have taken precedence over a time of gratitude and giving. People are more interested in receiving than in giving, to the detriment of our society, our families, and our relationships.
Here in Canada, for the most part, comparatively speaking, life is good. But even here some of our people face inadequate and unsafe water supply issues, housing issues, poverty and despair. In other parts of the world, wars rage; crops fail, droughts continue and we witness humanitarian crisis after crisis as people try to leave areas where life is bad for any number of reasons to get to an area where life is better.
As the song says, “So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”
This year, why not consider taking at least some of the money you’re going to spend on presents and instead, send it to a charity or organization providing humanitarian relief somewhere in the world? Aleppo. Haiti. Zimbabwe. Kwazulu-Natal. Nepal. India. Ethiopia. Even Canada. This isn’t a complete list – it doesn’t take long to research areas where people are hurting. Choose your personal preference.
Remember the real meaning of Christmas.