Christmas was yesterday. The Christmas season is a special time of year. Only the most cynical Scrooge thinks otherwise.
But, what makes it so special? After all. it is the most stressful of holidays, and according to experts, the most stressful time of the year. And yet, we find ourselves smiling more often, enjoying the lights, singing along with holiday music, and even getting a lift from jostling with busy shoppers in crowded stores and malls.
Perhaps it's because Christmas is the one time of year when we forget our differences and concentrate on our sameness. We give gifts...which means we have to consider the needs of someone else... to become more like that person.
We enjoy children..which means we let the beautiful child in each of us come to the surface and act out a heritage common to all adults. (and especially to seniors like me.)
We celebrate something and someone greater than ourselves...which means we acknowledge the weaknesses we share with every other human being.
We hang bright lights and open our doors to friends and neighbors ...which means we forget whatever petty disputes may have divided us during the year.
In other words, for one glorious season of the year we reject the things that separate us one from another, and rejoice in the things that bring us together.
Our likenesses bring joy. Our imagined differences bring distress. No wonder we consider this a special time of year.
A happy child once asked, "Why can't Christmas come every day?" Men of good will might ask the same question. There is no reason why the warmth and good feelings of Christmas have to disappear as fast as a drumstick on Grandpa's plate. Ben Franklin observed, "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." If we in America can develop the skill to make the iPhone, iPad and and the technical marvels of the day, can't we develop a spiritual force that will keep the spirit of Christmas alive for 364 more days?
Oh, and when you really want to know the true significance of the day, you must reflect on the very first one. That was the only Christmas. Over 2000 years later, we celebrate the anniversary of that great occasion every year.
