Lessons from the Heart
Kick bah humbug out of Christmas
By Pastor Bonnie Shoaf

Shoaf

The mall was a jungle. I was walking behind a family; mom and dad with three children. One child about six, was begging to go into the Disney store. Another, four or so, was whining about something else. The toddler in the stroller was squalling. It was well after supper time and I wondered if they were all hungry. The mother said something I couldn't hear.

Before I got out of earshot, I heard the father say, "I didn't want to come here in the first place. You just go wherever you want and spend all of our money, then we'll go home and everybody'll be happy."

The hustle and bustle of this season gets crazier every year. People spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need under the guise of making each other happy. Parents stand in long lines so their crying children can talk to Santa Claus, pretending that will make the kids happy. And Santa's bag isn't deep enough to reach down into and draw out the happiness these people are seeking; because the people themselves don't know what it will take to make them happy.

I wonder what might have happened if Mary had said to Joseph when they got to Bethlehem and couldn't find an inn, "I didn't want to come here anyway; and now you can't even find a place for me to lie down and have my baby." But that's not how the first Christmas came about. Mary delivered the gift of God in a stable and Joseph was there as a helpmate. It was a labor of love for that Holy Family in Bethlehem.

Where do we get off getting so stressed out at Christmas time? Why can this not be a Holy Season? What have we done to that little Babe in the manger?

Maybe this year, if we look hard enough, the Prince of Peace will appear in our homes.

For unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Bonnie Shoaf is pastor at Burlington United Methodist Church.