Christmas Day, 2021

It seems weird to be sitting on the deck this afternoon. The thermometer next to me shows the temperature at 74f (23c), which is a little warmer than the app for local weather on my phone shows (67f). Chris is working on her homemade dumplings for our evening chicken and dumplings Christmas dinner.

Christmas is different this year. Our kids are both away and celebrating on their own. We had a brief video call and opened a few presents with them this morning. Most of the day has been pretty much like any other day. Well, sort of.

Personally, Christmas is less about celebrating the birth of Jesus and more about reflecting on how the presence of Immanuel (God with us) has impacted humanity over the past 2000+ years and how the presence of God dictates my own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors from day to day.  I wonder what God thinks of the current celebrations -- both the secular, commercial, consumer driven celebrations and the Christian/Christian churches celebrations that bear little resemblance to the meek and simple beginning to the life of Jesus. 

It's been around four years since I bade farewell to religion in general and have been looking for a way to walk this journey in a way that honors God and shows what I believe to be true about God, Jesus, heaven, hell, and how we are to live with God and our fellow humans. Nearly half of that time has been during a pandemic and has both allowed me the time to contemplate and showed me sides of humanity that I had forgotten existed. Some are beautiful. Some are quite ugly. I'm sure that I exhibit some of each, myself.

All-in-all, I think the practice of celebrating a religious event that happened a couple of thousand years ago is semi-senseless. I would much rather see us learning to love each other a little bit like the Christ of Christmas teaches rather than the annual pageantry in churches and Santa parades and greenery decorating everything from homes, to businesses, to the downtown streets of cities and towns across the land. 
I don't mean to be a Scrooge. I'm just trying to be more practical and contemplative about what motivates us to be joyful and generous to a few more people for a few weeks at the end of each year.

I do wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. However you celebrate the season, and for whatever reasons you celebrate -- be joyous, generous, and kind for a few days. Maybe we can all choose to be kind for a few days longer this time around.

John