What did you see before us all?
Have you ever stood naked in front of a mirror? There is nothing that you can hide. Every imperfection is visible. Grant it, when you are in your prime, there are less flaws, than there are as you age. Have you ever read the story of ‘Dorian Gray?’ It is about a young man who wants to keep his good looks so he can have the life of abandonment it can bestow on him, without any consequences. He sells his soul, and a painting of him is scarred and grows uglier with each infraction of any moral or honorable code of conduct. By the end of the story, his painting is a hideous monster of a human, and Dorian dies, turning as ugly as his life, when the picture is destroyed. What would happen if we had pictures painted of ourselves painted with the ability to show each of our impure thought and selfish deed? How badly would our own portrait look after our life was spent? Or perhaps if we had a mirror that acted like an x-ray, and would show our hearts on a daily basis. How black and hardened do you think our hearts would look?
We are coming into the Christmas Season, and of whom are we thinking? Are we looking for kudos, or affirmation for the gifts we choose to give this year? Are we driven by gaining favor for the choices we make, or are we thinking of the person to which we intend to give the gift? Will ours be the most expensive, most extravagant and useless gift as long as it makes us look good? Christmas is to remind us that Jesus was born with the intent of giving the most precious gift, his life. We didn’t even need to ask, but he knew exactly what we needed, and gave it willingly. So in your holiday shopping this year, examine yourself and ask: why am I giving this gift? Is it going to make me look good, or is good for the person to which I intend to give it. They may not even know they need it, but search your memory and your heart, what gift did you get that, meant the most, or made you a better person, having received it? Shop with your heart not your gold master card! Sometimes the best gifts you can give are of your time, and family building gifts, not gifts that will encourage alone time, breaking down more of the family interaction, and family bonding time. Look in the mirror, before you make you Christmas wish list. What is important to you? What will make you a better, lovelier person inside and out? What will make the people in your life better?
As parents it is important to keep Christmas from becoming too commercial in our children’s lives. Ask them why they want the gifts for which they ask. Teach them to be givers, help them be beautiful on the inside and outside. Read the Christmas story right out of the Bible, making it a family tradition, and putting Christmas back into perspective.
We as writers rely on Santa to fulfill many Christmas wishes. But Santa is the spirit of giving and not receiving, so let’s try to convey that side of the holidays, and not the give me side.
“How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my transgressions and my sin.
Job 13:23
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Psalms 4:4
I call to remembrance my song in the night; I will commune with my own heart, And my spirit made a diligent search.
Psalms 77:6
I thought on my ways And turned my feet unto Your testimonies.
Psalms 119:59
‘Surely after that I turned back, I repented; And after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, Because I did bear the reproach of my youth.’
Jeremiah 31:19
Let us search and try our ways, And let us turn again to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:40