Christmas Shopping Done?

Have you finished your Christmas shopping?  Have you started your Christmas shopping?  December is well under way and even though Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, stores are still advertising great prices to lure you to purchase their wares.

Here is something you may or may not consider important, but there is a financial data company that has worked long and hard to come up with an overall percentage of 1.4 percent increase in the prices of things you buy this year.  PNC Wealth Management has made their report to let us all know it's going to cost a little more to have Christmas this year. 

Part of PNC's analysis went so far as to check the pricing of the things your "true love" might want to buy for you this year.  They calculated  all the things in the seasonal song, "Twelve Days of Christmas," and came up with a total of $116,273.06 that would be spent in order to buy everything "my true love gave to me" in the song.  They even detailed a 71% increase in the price of those six-geese-a-laying, but the good news is the price of five golden rings, four calling birds, and nine ladies dancing, has remained the same.

I've tried to see where all of this fits into the story of our Savior coming to earth in human form, born of a virgin, actually living among people like you and me, and ultimately paying the price for our sins with his own blood. Where did all the commercializing come into the picture of God's son as he laid out his own mission statement when he said,  

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free."  Luke 4:18

Christmas has come with many meanings and traditions over the years.  Family traditions are important to us and help us remember our roots and the things taught to us by previous generations.  The tradition of giving and receiving gifts is always a hit for us because we have grown accustomed to this time of year when loving one another becomes more real to us.

The true meaning of Christmas is in showing us God's love for mankind because of the exciting news that "a Savior is born in Bethlehem."  That greatly diminishes our wish list which might include a new big-screen TV or a new car or even those six-geese-a-laying.

When we learn the truth of God's love for sinful man, and his remedy for the sin debt that we could never pay, our hearts begin to lean toward loving God for his great gift, praising him for his forgiveness, and  "Peace on earth, good will toward men."

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