Christmas Past

     Amos 5:21  "I hate, I despise your feast days-----" Amos 8:10  "And I will make all your feast days into mourning-----"
     We are in the week between Christmas and New Years.   Wonderfully, I don't have the post-Christmas blues or the let-down that usually comes after the rushing mad dash preceding the day we celebrate as Christ's birthday.  I think that this is the first year I moved through it all without stress.  Its almost as though I was observing and not partaking.   I love Jesus and am glad beyond measure that He was born to Virgin Mary, never sinned, taught Father God's pure and holy heart, laid down His life on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Praise His Holy Name!  This year, He kept me calm---almost as though I was a little girl holding my daddy's hand, trusting Him to keep me safe in the midst of madness.   I think (I hope) that this year's peace may indicate I am drawing closer to Him and to Heaven.   As the old song says, "The things of earth grow stangely dim"............I'm keeping my eyes upon Jesus! 
     I have a question.  God gave the Jews seven feast days to follow and made it clear that any others they celebrated were not of Him---that He even "hated" those extra ones.   I don't believe even the early church celebrated Christmas---that it began when Constantine mixed pagan holidays with Holy days to appeal to the masses.  My question;  Is Father God pleased with our celebration of Christmas?
 Personally, I think not!
    I am dismayed at the mixture of good and evil at Christmas.  Of course, there is the blatant commercializing and over use of plastic.  There is a determination in every heart to have a wonderful Christmas and everyone knows that means spending gobs of money on "stuff".   Giving is good, right?  Giving can also be terrible if the wrong things are given for the wrong reasons.
     The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is so mired in the muck of panic ridden preparations that, for a lot of folks, its just an afterthought!  A lot of money is spent to give needy children toys---but what kind of toys?  A stroll through the toy department at Wally World will reveal mostly toys with an undeniable occult slant.  Harry Potter is still on the wish list of the innocents vulnerable to demonic influence.   I even saw today they have a yoga teaching Barbie.   God help us blind and stupid people who give such things to our kids and then wonder when they have "behavior problems."
     I do love the good will and acts of kindness of Christmas.   The sentiment of giving and friendship is great to behold.   We could use more of it year-round!   We could use the peace, goodwill toward men, too.  God sent His Son that we might become His children. He alone is the source of real peace and goodwill.  He is love, joy and mercy.  It is my prayer that all would come to know Him.  
     All the crazy activity only seems to create in me a yearning for the peace, tranquility, the glory and purity, the holy love of God.   I am "homesick" for heaven, but, oh how I want to see lost souls saved!  That would be the most perfect Christmas gift of all!   
 P.S.   I had a dream that I was expressing all this to a friend on the phone.   She called me a "spoil sport."  My feelings were hurt and, wonderful Christian that I am, I threw a big glass of milk all over the plush seats of her car.  Then I was mortified and frantically trying to clean it up before it soaked in.   Hey---it was just a dream---I'm glad of that!   If that dream means anything--does it mean for me to "lighten up" concerning Christmas or to work on an obvious anger problem?  Maybe both.  Maybe neither---who knows?