Saturday 24 December 2011

The run for the cash

     People are stampeding the cash registers, but forgetting why they are giving gifts in the first place. It's as if the mass media has set up a new religion based upon how much money people can actually waste at Christmas. Yesterday, on CBC Television, they interviewed the manager of the SummerHill LCBO, and he proudly informed us that this year, he expected to break last year's one day record: $48,000,000 two days before Christmas! We've had helicopter shots of the Yorkdale parking lot wich looked more like Mecca than a store and they keep pumping us up with all these financial forecasts about how much money people are actually dumping.
    And on it goes. Every year has to beat the previous year for greed and insanity, all in the search for good feelings and a sense that yes, I  bought the best gift of all.
    The grandchildren will get a gift from us, but we will continually remind them that they have to give a gift too. That gift is the tiny door in their hearts which we will tell them to open for Jesus, so that they can make some room for the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Almighty Ruler, the Son of God.
    What people who do not believe in Jesus do at Christmas is beyond me. But I do know that we will be thinking of Him a lot, and trying to remain calm at a time of frenetic business, a time of searching and grabbing for things which will be thrown away a few weeks after Christmas, as the anxiety sets in again, and the meaning of the birth of Our Lord is lost on commercialism and secularism once more.
    Money talks, but talk is cheap. Christ says nothing at this time of year. We simply watch a baby in a stable, and the message is loud and clear. The Angel Garbriel does the rest. Settle down, appreciate what you have, rejoice at the good news. The Prince of Peace is here as promised, to be recognized by men of kind hearts and good will.
 

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