What Christmas is all about

I can't believe that Thanksgiving has snuck up on us already and Christmas is right around the corner! Today as I had intentions to clean my house in preparation for Thanksgiving guest, I couldn't help but want to climb up into the attic and pull all of my Christmas stuff down. I made myself work most of the day in our bedroom, it looked like a bomb had exploded. I scrubbed baseboards, removed dust webs, and washed 90 loads of clothes it felt like. To reward myself  I got out the white tree I'm putting in our room this year. ( I feel so Christmas-y that I want to decorate everything!!) As I took the tree out of its box my mind went back to a conversation my husband and I had last week as well as the Christmas sermons our preacher gave last year. When I was growing up, Christmas was the most happy and magical time of the year. Everything was just so joyful and full of spending time with the people who mean the most. The older I get I see all around me people getting lost in buying stuff to give for gifts and forgetting what Christmas is all about.  I mean EVERY store puts out displays of JUNK (all of those little gift sets) that no one needs, but people buy it up like there is no tomorrow so that they have something for every last person on their list down to their neighbor's dog. They spend and spend and spend and not once think about why they are even buying gifts to give in the first place.... JESUS was given to us as a free and wonderful gift so that our sins could be taken away and we could live in heaven one day with him and our God. So that we could have someone to lead us through this crazy and scary life knowing that he has gone before us and prepared the way for us, that he has a plan for us, and that he is ALWAYS with us.  We give gifts to the people we love as a earthly representation of God giving us the most precious gift ever. He didn't send just anyone ( junk off of a random store display) he sent his most prized and loved thing, his son. Our preacher brought to light new scripture for his Christmas sermons last year instead of just the Christmas story, and I will never look at my tree the same again. Everything we do to decorate for Christmas represents Jesus and so many people don't have a clue. The Tree-- pretty obvious, Jesus died on the tree because he loved us and wanted to pay the price for us so that we may spend eternity praising him-- the Christmas tree should be our constant reminder of this. The Lights-- Jesus is the light of the world, and as Christians we are supposed to shine our light of Jesus into the dark parts of the world. The star-- the star of Bethlehem to lead the wise men to Jesus as well as a reminder to look up and PRAISE God.
It is so uplifting and de-stressing when you remember that Christmas isn't about what STUFF you give, its about remembering what has been given for you and acting from the overflow of Jesus' love from your heart. <3