Driving down Silver Springs Boulevard during the holidays is an interesting experience. Heading west from the east side of town you notice an increasing number of decorations. Reaching downtown  there is an explosion of lights. A canopy of white lights here, trees wrapped in red and green lights there. In the square is a huge Christmas tree with its ever changing pattern of colored lights. Things change on the west side. Every so often there is a lighted decoration on a lamp pole, but they don’t make much of a show in this poorer section of town.

It’s sort of the way Christmas is celebrated in our culture. There’s a big display that starts winding down on December 26 and is gone by January 2 except among some nutty Christians who celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas until January 5. It’s a shame to see it fade away.

It’s more shameful that the message of Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us, disappears also (if it ever got much attention in the first place). How can we help people understand that God is with us? In particular, how to we help the poor know that God is with them? It will take more than a few gifts at Christmas. It takes a constant, concerted effort to care for those in need, but doing that can make every day a Christmas Day. We must work at it.

To stay in the right spirit, here’s an old Christmas song:

In Thee is gladness
Amid all sadness,
Jesus, sunshine of my heart.

Read Luke 4:16-21 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne