Real Christmas Messengers

     There is no war on Christmas just because people choose to say Happy Holidays. If I know someone celebrates Christmas, I use that greeting, but I go more generic if I either know they do not or don't know. There is a Facebook post that pops up every so often about why people say "Happy Holidays"  and it something like "between November 1 and January 6 there are 29 holidays and I don't think mine is the most important." That said, I have  Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim friends and friendly colleagues who regularly wish me a Merry Christmas. I've even heard that a few of them have incorporated elements of Christmas into their  winter celebrations because they like the meaning of Christmas, the joy of celebrating the birth of someone brought into the world to share love, peace, and grace, even if they have different belief systems about God and the Universe.

     Every now and then I read or hear of a story that warms me to my heart about why Christmas is felt so deeply by some. These are stories often about gifts, but not material. The true gifts of the spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control are exemplified in ways that mean something a little different to who is hearing, reading, or telling. Yesterday I read the post by my dear cyber friend, Mary, who blogs over at Frugally Challenged, about a time when she experienced and witnessed so many of these gifts on Christmas Eve in the blog post Meeting a Prophet.

     I'll admit, the state of the world right now, the so called leaders, the disputes between lefties and righties, Labor and Tory,  governments and protesters all gets me a mix of sad and angry. I struggle with how two people who walk the same earth can see things so differently. I struggle with reading  Facebook posts from people I used to be real world friends with, villify poor people and refugees as criminals, cheats, and terrorists, in a wide swath. It makes it hard for me to go to church when there is Twitter feeds claiming Trump was appointed by God himself. The Democrats aren't getting off the hook either in my opinion. As much as I was physically ill that Trump was elected President, they are not doing their duty to work hard in a bipartisan way to solve the nations and world needs, and were focused on day 1 to try and go down an impeachment path. Meanwhile, the Republican led Senate holding hostage 400 plus bills sent over by the Democratic led House, is just pure childishness.

     My mother-in-law gets us a subscription to Guideposts. I have not been reading it, but would struggle to tell her to not bother. There were just too many  one sided stories about grace seemingly going to the "right" kind of person, and wasn't doing anything for me in trying to figure out my own faith. Maybe I'll pick up an issue an reread in a new mindset. Maybe I need to look for where there might a prophet, who might not necessarily be the one the article author intended. Maybe, I just need to look harder for the messengers around me.