Merry Christmas!
It is a special Christmas for me because it is the first time for me to celebrate it in another country, outside my motherland. It also means celebrating it without my family. But I do have relatives here in the land down under so no need to be sad.
In previous years, Christmas was usually busy with my family as godchildren and relatives go to our place to ask for presents or money. So it is the time to share blessings.
However, I am not happy that Christmas has become commercialised. All the Christmas shopping and scrambling for discounts. It is usually traffic in my hometown, so that is what I do not like.
Where I am now, it is quiet, there are still Christmas decorations and shopping but not as much. Or maybe because there are less people here.
Since there is no Christmas rush here, I reflected on what Christmas truly represents and I came up with three : Love, Reflection and Oneness with Christ.
"Give love on Christmas day" is the popular line from the song. Yes, we get to share our love by spending time with family and friends and giving gifts. Time and gifts are two love languages according to Dr. Gary Chapman's popular book "The Five Love Languages". Let us not be too absorbed on giving the best presents, as our presence is really the best gift, and let us not forget to give appreciation and affirmation, a hug (physical touch), and to serve our loved ones in order to complete the love languages.
Reflection during Christmas for me is to think of the blessings of God, since this was the time the best blessing was given : the Saviour. Although Easter is the bigger celebration because of the resurrection, there would have been no Saviour if the roles of father (Joseph) and mother (Mary) were not filled. By sending a baby instead of a grown man, God teaches us patience. He really wanted to be with us.
And since Christmas is just a week away from New Year, it is the time to reflect on the year that is about to end and to be hopeful for the coming year.
Immanuel, meaning God with us, was the name given to Jesus. He became flesh, lived amongst us, experienced joys and sorrows. Whenever we feel hopeless, we can always remember how Jesus was dejected, despised, crucified, so we know He experienced our sorrows and more. But with Christmas we should also remember a new birth means hope, and how Jesus was loved by Joseph and Mary, how the three Kings traveled to see the Messiah, how the angels and shepherd glorified the King. Christmas represented Majesty with humility through the manger.
Each Christmas is special. It is the day of the King, shared with us.
