Christmas means more than tinsel or snow or sleigh bells or glittering gifts on Christmas trees.
Christmas means forgetting self and remembering those who have no Christmas. It means leaving our little heavens as Jesus left His big heaven to visit those who need help and who need to hear a message of peace and hope and cheer.
Christmas means the bright eyes of little children made glad by a demonstration of unselfish love.
Christmas means revived hope in the hearts of fathers and mothers who because of some tragedy had lost hope of giving their children a merry Christmas until a modern good Samaritan came along with a gift of food.
Christmas means that Kindness is "Queen for a Day," and what a happier world she makes. We cannot help wishing that she would rule the world every day of the year. What transformations are wrought by kindness! It turns hovels of hate into havens of happiness!
Christmas means that a hard, cruel, selfish, war-weary world looks for a brief time into the face of God. It looks into a manger and sees the face of a little Babe. It sees a fleeting vision of what a little Babe can do to make a better world. It hears for a moment the song of the angels, singing: "On earth peace, good will toward men." It sees how hard, selfish hearts can be broken and the fountains of love begin to flow in a gladsome stream. It sees the miser's clutched hand relax for a day as a little flash of light from heaven shines into his darkened soul. It sees businessmen forget the profit they planned to get and begin to plan to give. And how many suddenly discover that we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give! Christmas helps many people begin to live!
Christmas causes prodigal sons and daughters to pause in their wayward, downward course and think of mother and father and home. Then little remembrances are sent to revive hope in the hearts of lonely, hungry ones waiting by the mailbox.
No, Christmas is not in the snow or the tinseled tree or even in the gifts we send. It is in the spirit of love; it is in the Spirit of God walking abroad in the land. It is the only time of the year that some hearts open to let Him in. O that we would make every day Christmas! Christmas means we have heard the music of the bells of love. It means we have smelled the fragrance of the rose of love. Christmas means we can still feel the power of the love of God.
