Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I’m hoping that we will see many smiles this Christmas season. Though the economy is not recovering as soon as we had hoped, it appears to be slowly improving. Many continue to believe the country is going in the wrong political direction, as indicated in our recent mid-term elections. For the first time in my memory we have less than our parents had in a monetary sense.

Let’s turn our attention to why we should be smiling. It may be because of the economy. We’ve learned to do more with less during the past two years, and maybe that’s a good thing.

I was thinking just yesterday of my growing up time. We didn’t have computer games, and if you can believe it, we didn’t even have a TV set for much of my youth. But we did have radio—and I listened to it a lot on Sunday afternoons. Good serial shows like “The Shadow” and the “Lone Ranger”. Yes it took a little imagination—but we could imagine being “20,000 Leagues” under the sea or way out in space at Mars with “Flash Gordon”. Don’t be surprised if your children or grandchildren ask about these programs and names. They well may not know of them. My parents didn’t make much money in my early years (and they were frugal savers who lived through the Great Depression of the 20’s and 30’s). But there were lots of conversations, reading, imagining—and lots of smiles. So maybe our smiles are because we have more time with our families right now.

Just think of Christmas Dinner and smile. Perhaps we are smiling because we are sure that our family get-together will be well attended this year.

Perhaps it’s just because of the season. Thinking about the aromas of the kitchen during Christmas, brings a smile to my face. What could be better than three holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, within just a little more than a month.

Of course, the anticipation of little children looking for a visit that brings them a gift will bring smiles to their faces. And those little smiles should put a great big smile on our faces as well.

I’ve often thought about the Biblical story of the birth of Christ. Most of us have heard the story from childhood, but it still affects me. I think about the shepherds looking after their sheep up in the hills near Bethlehem. Think about that dark night—no electric street lights in Bethlehem. Maybe there was a gentle glow off in the distance. Remember there were many people in Bethlehem on that night because of the census procedure.

Shepherds settled down with their flocks were startled and scared when an angelic messenger appeared to announce God’s gift to people. Can you imagine the brilliance of that moment? Light like no living man or woman had ever seen. Scared them out of their minds almost. God’s announcement came to men who were consider ritually unclean by religious people of Bethlehem because of their job. Why them and why an angelic announcement? I leave that thought to your understanding.