Reflection: Are You Willing to Keep Christmas?
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The merry season comes and goes, and once the
decorations are packed up, presents are opened and the celebrations draw to a
close, so does the Christmas spirit, and all the love, thoughtfulness, and
unity that it brings. But what is it that discourages us from celebrating
this joyous feast all year round? This year, with all my kind greetings and
wishes, I would like to send you a reminder about something that is better
than the observance of Christmas day, and that is - keeping
Christmas.
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Are you willing…
...to forget what you have done for
other people,
and to remember what other people have done for you?
...to ignore what the world owes
you,
and to think what you owe the world?
...to put your rights in the
background,
and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground? |
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Are you willing...
...to see that men and women are
just as real as you are,
and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy?
...to own up to the fact that
probably the only good reason
for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life?
...to close your book of
complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you
for a place where
you can sow a few seeds of happiness? |
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Are you willing to do these things
even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and
consider
the needs and desires of little children?
And to remember the weakness and
loneliness of people growing old?
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Are you willing...
...to stop asking how much your
friends love you,
and ask yourself whether you love them enough?
...to bear in mind the things that
other people have to bear in their hearts to try to understand what
those who live in the same home with you really want, without waiting
for them to tell you? |
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Are you willing...
...to trim your lamp so that it
will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front
so that your shadow will fall behind you?
...to make a grave for your ugly
thoughts, and a garden with an open gate for
your kind feelings ?
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Are you willing...
...to believe that love is the
strongest thing in the world? Stronger than hate, stronger than evil,
stronger than death?
And that the blessed life which
began in Bethlehem
1,900 years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?
Are you willing to do these things,
even for a day?
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Then you can keep Christmas.
And if you can keep it for a day,
why not always?
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Share this reflection with
your loved ones to wish them a happy Christmas, this year, and
every day...
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Words by Henry Van Dyke
