Christmas has its several sided – Sunday, December 15, 1957
Somewhere recently we read a sentence which said some of us “are sawing wood so fast that we forget to take time to sharpen the saw.”1
There is much of running without recharging, and much of moving without taking much time to think of the real meaning of the motions, with everyone having much to do, and every day a day less in which to do it.
This is a time of intense activity: of the making of things, of the buying of things, of the selling of things, of the wrapping of things, of giving out and gathering in, of decorating and adorning, of crowding much into a limited length of life toward a definite date and deadline.
Christmas, of course, has its several sides: its spiritual side, its commercial side, and its personal side that pertains to the being together of family and friends.
It also has its compassionate side, the blessed side that moves us to reach out for others who might otherwise be left lonely and alone. (it would seem well that it should have its many sides and concerning its most significant side we shall have more to say at another time.) But we shouldn’t let the rush of it rob us of its real significance.
We shouldn’t be sawing so fast that we fail to sharpen the saw,” or living so fast that we mistake the motions and mechanics for the real essentials of the season.
It isn’t the mere motions and mechanics that make Christmas. Whether we know it or not, whether we ignore it or not, whether we rush blindly past it or not, it is the deeper meaning of it that moves us: the spirit of Christmas and of the Christ; and the binding power that gives its sweet assurance of the everlastingness of families and friends, and the great and good gift of being together—so good that it is blessed to be assured of it, always and forever.
Let not the rush of it lose for us its real reasons or cause us to close our eyes to the love of loved ones, to the loneliness of others, to the great goodness of the giving of ourselves, or to the great goodness of being together, and belonging, all of us, as children of a Loving Father who sent His Son that we might have life everlasting.
Let not the rush of Christmas crowd out the very things that Christmas is.
1Author unknown.
December 15, 1957
Broadcast Number 1,478