What Season is This?

What season is this???? It is rightfully the time of year that we as Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a Holy Season and a time of feeling drawn closer to our family and friends.

The real celebration of Christmas has long been lost in the commercialism of our society. It is a time for merchants to make a profit of the sales in their stores. It is a time of supporting trade with China and other countries that have caused our own factories to close. It is a time.......Well, here I go and I suppose that I sound a lot like Scrooge did but that is not my intention.Christmas is a wonderful time of the year for me and my family. It does break my heart to see what it has become. As I shopped yesterday and earlier in the season, I searched for Nativity Sets. It is my custom to give the newlyweds in my family a nice Nativity on their first Christmas. I could not find one in the stores that I visited. I can remember when there was an entire section filled with them. I have several Nativity sets from primitive looking to elegant, but the favorite is one purchased at the local variety store when The Rancher and I were newly weds.

We were married just before Christmas and spent our first anniversary doing our Christmas shopping and going home and decorating our tree. It was and still is a special time for us. I have to start my shopping a little earlier as our family has grown in size and I don't do too well doing it all at once anymore. Back to the beginning and the "Reason for the Season". Isn't the gift that God has given to us more precious than anything that man has made? I love the Christmas story and I think as I grow older it means more to me. God gave His precious Son who in turn gave His all for us. We are so undeserving of such love. We are also so Thankful for this plan that God had for us.

As a child, I remember our own cardboard creche. My sister had gotten it from selling Christmas cards. Maybe she bought it, but anyway, I remember sitting it under the tree and singing "Away in a Manger" on Christmas Eve. Our Dad would read the Christmas story and even as children we knew that it was Jesus who we should be acknowledging. We were kids and Santa was pretty much on our minds too.

The sad truth is this: Today Santa has taken front seat to Jesus and that is what makes me so upset.

Today, I will get out my Nativity sets and place them around the house along with my artificial poinsettas and greenery and holy berries and light some candles and play christmas music to get me in the christmas spirit. Next week, the Rancher and I will get out our 'artificial tree" and decorate it with the ornaments that we have collected and the kids and grandkids have made us through the years. It will be a time of remembering when all of the kids were at home helping us and how much we miss their laughing and talk as we worked on this family project. It will also be a time of thanking our Father in Heaven for providing His Son.

Christmas Morning will be quiet as the kids will be in their own homes making their own memories but we will have them all at home to close the year out and we will probably be thankful for all of the gifts that Santa has provided. Our prayer is that each one is filled with the true spirit of Christmas and the gift of a great love.