How do you pay the bills instead of what gifts you will buy at the mall? Did you find yourself staying away from malls because you know you don't have a dime to your name to spare? Did you wonder why you couldn't shop like your friends or have a party like the one you were invited to? Did you wonder what you did wrong that this year there is no reason to celebrate at all?
This is supposed to be the joyous time of the year when TV commercials tell us that giving the perfect gift to someone we love will make us happy. It is supposed to be the time of being unselfishly thinking about the happiness of someone else instead of ourselves. Yet when you saw interviews of people waiting all night for a black friday sale, they were talking about buying something for themselves. The people who have money, are able to pay their bills, pay to heat their homes and pay their mortgages/rent, tend to not feel lucky as much as they feel they deserve all they have. After all, they worked hard for all of it but the truth is, most of us worked hard but were left with nothing to show for it.
We may remember years when our families seemed to have all we could ever ask for with a tree decorated tenderly, stuffed with perfectly wrapped gifts we spent weeks shopping for and enough food to feed the neighborhood. We may think about years when our families were all gathered around to celebrate this day we are supposed to honor the birth of Christ. Then we wonder why it all fell apart. How did we end up this year with nothing? How did our family members pass away so there is no need to set the table for more than two? How did we end up not even putting up a tree this year while our neighbors have their homes covered in lights? There was a time when seeing these homes gave me a warm feeling inside but now they just make me feel more empty.
Maxed out credit cards and bills you can't pay because your bank account is empty leaves you wondering when the ghosts of Christmas will show up and haunt your rich relatives so their eyes are opened to your need. You scrape up as much change as you can so that you can buy a lottery ticket right after you hear about some other needy person hitting it for millions and you wonder why it wasn't you. You may think back to all the years you donated to charity to help others have a reason to celebrate, knowing they were cared about by someone while this year you are the one in need but no one is coming to help you feel cared about.
Over two thousand years ago a child was born. He came into this world to live among the poor instead of among the rich and powerful. No one deserved Him coming into this world to teach them what love really was and no one deserved Him being willing to sacrifice His life. He could have had left us all to live and die according to our own thoughts and stand before God on our day of judgment all by ourselves to answer for our deeds, but He came anyway. He preached about taking care of the poor and needy, helping each other with caring hearts, charity, compassion, mercy and forgiveness. He also told the people who heard His voice that God loved them.
They went back to their simple homes with little comforts but they knew they were no longer invisible to God because a loving miracle came into their lives and gave them love.
Those times were not taken up by shopping at the mall or untangling lights from the year before. They did not spend hours addressing Christmas cards to send to people they never hear from during the rest of the year. They didn't avoid paying a bill so they could go out and buy what they couldn't afford any more than they felt guilty because they couldn't buy anything for a gift someone else didn't really want or need just so they wouldn't be embarrassed by their poverty. They had a different value system that did not leave room for feeding the coffers of mega store chains. To them it was not what they could buy for someone else but what they could give to someone.
We seem to live in a time and place where greed is now something to not be ashamed of. Politicians proudly fight for the wealthy to the point where no one else's needs can be met until they take care of the rich. The rich want more and more no matter who has to suffer or pay for something they don't really need but feel they deserve. Yet when you look them in the eyes, you see how empty their lives really are. There are others, rich beyond belief, yet they have taken a vow to give away a great portion of their wealth to charity. They do not feel as if they deserve their money but have been blessed to have it. While some will spend their days shopping for stuff, others will go through their closets because this time of year is also cold in most parts of the country and there are homeless people with even less needing warm clothes and blankets. They will give what they don't need to someone with even less than they have. The homeless getting the help may not feel as if they deserve any help at all, but will feel blessed that someone cares they are in need.
None of us really deserve a miracle to happen in our lives, but we pray for one anyway. We hope that soon our help will come and our tears will stop flowing out of our eyes. We wait. Somewhere in the country, there is a person being called to help us but they do not willingly deliver what God is asking them to do, so we wait longer. We end up blaming God for not answering our prayers and then we turn from God. The same God who loved us so much He sent Christ. The same God we praised when we felt He helped us all the other times in our lives when we were in need.
The day we fell in love, we felt God sent the person into our lives. The day we marry, we invite God to be there with us and watch over us,yet when we argue, we feel God has stepped out of our lives. We thank him when our kids are born yet as soon as they get sick, turn into brats or don't live up to our expectations, we wonder where God is. We thank Him when we get a job and run to Him when we lose a job wondering why He didn't protect us from the budget cut or the bad boss we had. In good times, it is easy to praise God until we have it so good for so long that we end up believing we deserve it all and then want to keep it all for ourselves. In times of need, we turn to God for help, believing we deserve His help, until prayers have been unanswered for so long that we end up not feeling as if we deserve any help at all and God has judged us unworthy. We forget about all the times before when He helped us despite ourselves.
It is what we do in times of our own need that is a miracle. If we have seen everything taken away yet want to pray for someone else, there is a miracle. If we are ill yet pray for someone else, there is a miracle. If we have lost most of our faith yet manage to say a prayer for someone else, that is a miracle. When we can rise above our own troubles, our own heartaches, our own misery for the sake of someone else, there are miracles happening all around us everyday.
There was a woman who came to me last year to help her son. She said I saved his life after countless hours on the phone and spent emailing. Yet when her son was better and the crisis was over, I asked her for financial help, she turned me down. It was not something to make me regret helping her or her son and that was a miracle because honestly, had it been all on my ideas, I would have regretted every minute of it but God changed the way I thought about it and I ended up feeling sorry for her because she could take no pity on me or my need. The miracle lives on because no matter what I face, I still want to help other people when no one wants to help me.
This is the way we all need to live out our days to really honor the day Christ came into this world. The miracle in your life may not be fixing the problems in your life as much as it will be about fixing the way you face the problems with love, charity and compassion still there for others. If you feel love for someone else, be not ashamed you cannot buy them a gift. If you cannot afford to send a card this year, then send a prayer. If you cannot afford to travel to see family and friends, take the time to call them. We can give so much to others even when we have very little ourselves.
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