Essay --

These lyrics are from an 80’s rock band by the name of Toto. These words might have accurately described the feelings of those people living at the time of the birth of Jesus –people who were wondering and hoping for a change, people who were hoping to receive a gift greater than what they could give of themselves. It was only about three weeks when we celebrated the birth of Jesus in this world on the 25th of December. Along with worship, we opportunities to exchange a bunch of gifts, eating a great deal of good food, sharing conversation, potentially loading up the car and traveling from one house to another, only to reach those last days of December and beginning days of January with our tongues hanging out and sprawled out on the couch from exhaustion, and for some of us, eating too much food and/or chocolate. There may be times when we might wonder why all this needs to be done, and we begin to consider that we are really living out the Spirit of Christmas giving and sharing gifts and time with others in a very hurried way. This could be the only time we get to visit with other family, if the family is spread out over a great distance. †¦ This is the time of year when we have the opportunities to share material gifts, as well as the gift of love and care. Do we ever stop, however, to wonder about the gift of hope? Where did we leave it in the midst of our packing and preparing in those stress-filled hours before the Christmas celebration? How did we manage to overlook that precious gift of hope as we struggled through the parking lots and mobs of other shoppers at the mall? Do we feel it within ourselves as we attempt to find something to say on the 100th Christmas card, or mail the umpteenth email or facebook mess... ...before us? Our faith may waver from time to time, but we always fall back on hope – even for the most pessimistic of us – hope is what brought the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem and it also brings us to the stable, kneeling before the Christ child in our hearts and minds. Are we still willing to humble ourselves this Christmas season before this child that brought nations in conflict to their knees? Are we still willing to experience hope and not be confused and deceived by the materialism that seems to control the holiday? Just as our 80’s rock song suggests, we need to believe in the things that we need to survive. During this Christmas season, let us take the time to reflect on gives us hope each and everyday – it is truly the gift that keeps giving and giving to us – regardless of where we are on our faith journeys and our proximity to our epiphanies.