“Lest we forget ……… CHRIST is the reason for this season.”
“REMEMBER the Wonder” was a catchy TV ad slogan for Wonder Bread, an iconic bread company that fled the woeful state of California. But the phrase can very well be used to refer to the true season of wonder — CHRISTMAS.
December days and nights seem to slip from our grasp like fine grains of sand. The hours seem to hurtle through the day as we complete a year’s cycle and move on to the next.
Women in particular try in earnest to mesh the unusually heavy demands of the many roles they play specially this season. If we get completely sidetracked by the minutiae and the methodology, the expenses and the endless activities of what constitutes Christmas, we are more than likely to morph into the likes of Scrooge and be tempted to say “Bah, humbug!”
More than likely, the heaviness and drudgery that we seem to associate with this season have a lot to do with the failure to find that somewhat elusive SENSE OF REAL JOY that this season can bring in abundance to those who are open to it.
Sure, we can go through the motions of Christmas activities, shopping, baking, decorating, partying, drinking and binging. And yet, very often even if we diligently check off all the things in our list, something remains amiss. We fail to catch that Christmas feeling.
The spirit of the season is like a butterfly. If you keep mindlessly trashing about in endless activities, it will elude you. But if you sit very still, that Christmas feeling might simply alight on you. Be still and soak in the sight, sounds and smells of the season.
If you can, take time to be holy.
One trick I have learned is to SIMPLIFY and not try to take on too much of anything. That includes refraining from maxing out my credit cards, no matter how infinitely tempting it is to rush out and join the shopping madness. Filter out distractions. Tune out of social media. Make room in your tight schedule to ponder the wonder of this season.
Each day of the season, count at least ONE BLESSING that you may have taken for granted — like YOUR FAMILY, dysfunctional or imperfect the members may be, including yourself, we are all we’ve got.
To borrow from a song, “Love the one you’re with.” That means stop looking elsewhere. The internet and social media could be a minefield of dashed hopes and dreams. For the most part, it is definitely not the place to find what you think is missing in your life. It is, at best, an illusion.
If you still have relatively good health and do not have to depend on a cocktail of drugs to get you through the day, REJOICE AND BE GLAD! Many wealthy yet ailing people longing to live a bit longer, will trade places with you in a heartbeat. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED.
Love your life but without conceit. It is simply on loan to you. Treasure the hours. Forcibly yank out just an hour each day to sit in the silence during this season to take the time to smell the coffee, steep the tea or quaff the cocoa in a quiet spot, free of the interruptions of all those annoying electronic beeps.
Unless your job entails spelling the difference between life and death, CUT OFF YOUR ELECTRONIC LEASH, at least for just an hour. Who said you have to be on call all the time?
That hour you gift yourself with is yours to savor and JUST BE. That hour might very well help you to remember the wonder — to get back that gift of amazement we once had when we were children.
Lest we forget, CHRIST IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON. Pay no attention to the godless fools who would like to delete Christ from the season. It is CHRISTMAS, not XMAS. Those are minions of the devil at work in the guise of “multi-culti” political correctness always on the lookout for relabeling things to suit a twisted, AND oftentimes, sinister agenda
The strongest evidence of Christ living in our hearts during this season is an inner glow becoming an outward display of joy that wells within. The joy overflows and like a heaven-sent viral infection affects those we work and live with within the small orbit of our existence.
Sorrow, pain and disappointment, heartache and heartbreak in spades — we will always have. They have a place in the general scheme of things. They work like a sculptor’s tool kit that shapes and molds the structure of our soul and our being that ultimately make us resilient. We can then not only weather all seasons, but to survive and even THRIVE.
But just for this season, BELIEVE that you are allowed to get a moratorium from all that.
This season is filled with awesome wonders and all it takes is to open our eyes, sharpen our senses and soak them all in.
Conditioned by years of mundane repetition, we have lost the magic and instinctive sense of wonder we were born with. We went through the motions of getting an education, raising a family, earning a living, running a business, working ceaselessly, it seems till we drop down dead or until Social Security says we can stop, (whichever comes first), sleeping and doing the same things all over again at daybreak.
Routine and predictability though calming and reassuring, can numb the soul over time. Don’t let that happen. Christmas is a gift. Christ was born so we can have eternal life. God, in His great love for us, thinks that we are worth saving.
Take heart. This season of wonder, as God intended it to be, will always be a joyful reminder of HIS LOVE for us.
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Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail [email protected]
