Here it is Christmas day!
I believe a leading cause to general unhappiness is lack of
appreciation for what things really mean.
Just recently we celebrated Christmas eveat my in laws house, and they
are down sizing. Let me tell you exactly
what this means. My father in law is 80
and is getting a bit morbid about his remaining time on earth. So he announced that they were selling their
rural house In January. Sometime
afterwards, he stated “Anyone want any of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books?” This is like offering a mouse cheese! One caught my eye and I began to read. I ran across
an interesting statement that said:
Cynics know the price of everything and the value of nothing!
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| Our family tree this year: a tradition |
I have often told people, jokingly, that I was a bit of a
cynic. Maybe I should watch my words in
the future! I wanted to start a
discussion on traditions and gave it some thought but didn’t commit to writing
until recently. I thought of how culture
plays a large role in tradition. Just like processed lunch meat or sausage: everyone
loves it, but no one wants to really know what is in it! The idea of having a winter festival comes
from long traditions seeped in paganism.
Any student of history can attest to December 21st
as being the winter solstice and what followed in most cultures. Romans celebrated a couple of winter festivals
like Saturnalia and Juvenilia. Saturn was
the tutor of Dionysius the Greek god of
wine (and partying) Saturn was a lush
and often depicted having a white beard and rosy red cheeks . . . oh well I
guess you get the point! Juvenilia was a
celebration of children (You guessed it… where we get the word Juvenile from). From what I also understand the Norse
celebrated a season of Yule and cut down a very large log to burn during their
festival as well. Remember: No one wants to really know what’s in sausage
or lunch meat!
After getting
everyone down, (please don’t say ‘that’s a lot of bologna!’) let me ask this
rhetorical question: was it not a stroke of genius to take the shortest day of
the year to celebrate the birth of the greatest light mankind has ever known?
- A day so powerful with Jesus birth that it has permanently split time in half! (BC and AD)
- A man who never raised an army but has made enemies stack arms and serve him!
- A man who commanded nature by walking on water and saying to the storm “peace be still”?
Regardless of circumstances men and women will always find a
way to sin! And the righteous will always find a way to praise God! It is best to take a quiet moment to reflect on this
simple truth: In a world filled with unhappiness, loneliness and turmoil, we can find the great light and the
prince of Peace!
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