Glitz & Glamour

*** UPDATE*** I had to add this new Faith Hill song and video to this posting. I am so in love with this new song. I love Christmas songs and this is now one of my new favorites. Pause my music player at the bottom of the page before starting the video.


Yesterday in my Ladies Sunday School class we were discussing what we knew about the wise men and kinda traced back to the thoughts that they all could have come from Babylon, been more than 3, were not kings but "wise men", etc... and we also discussed how commercialized Christmas has become. This has really been on my heart a lot lately. Yes, I love getting presents and as a child waiting to see what gifts we were going to get, but I never really bought the whole Santa thing and really wondered why a "man" could "see me when i'm sleeping, knows when i'm awake, he knows if i've been bad or good..." The only person I know that knows and sees all this is God and he doesn't ride in a sleigh pulled w/ reigndeer, wear a big red and white velvet suit w/ fur trim, or even yell, "Ho Ho Ho," which I still don't get what that has to do with anything.
The more I thought about this the more I thought of our child. I don't want this baby to be so focused on what he/she is getting and forget why we celebrate Christmas. I also don't want to fill my child's head w/ lies and false teachings. Yes, the whole "santa" thing is fun and entertaining but that's just my point. Why does Christmas have to be entertaining or fun? It should already be! We should be highly excited to know that God sent His ONLY SON to this earth as a baby, born in a lowly manger, only to be spat upon, cursed, hung on a cross, die, and then raise from the dead 3 days later. That to me, is enough to be EXCITED AND ENTERTAINED ABOUT!

I know a lot of people that are basically boycotting the Commercialized Christmas and not buying presents or talking about Santa but simply celebrating His birth and celebrating their families and the blessings God has given them. It's tough to do that because it's not "the norm" but really, God doesn't want us to be "the norm." What's the verse, "...you are to be a peculiar people...." I can't seem to find the exact scriptures but I KNOW it's there.
I enjoy decorating the tree(s) (lol..not just one!) for Christmas, adorning the mantel w/ garland, lights and berries, illuminating the night w/ Christmas lights outside, hanging the stockings and wrapping gifts but the moment I let that become the Reason for The Season, that's the moment I need to stop, remember how God felt letting His only Son come to save me and take all of the beautiful decorations down and focus on God and not the glitz and glamour. God was not born in a palace, mansion, or home adorned w/ a million twinkling Christmas trees filled with ornaments. He was born in a stable, where animals slept, ate, used the bathroom, and lived. He was layed in a manger where animals eat and regurgitate in with no comfy, soft, warm blanket but wrapped in stiff, scratchy clothe that you and I would never dream of wearing must less wrap our child in from the cold.
This Christmas my perspective is a lot different than it has been before. I don't know if this is because I have a living, breathing, miracle living inside me that God graciously blessed us with after many agonizing months of no hope or if it's because He's speaking to me to tell this lost world about Him. I think it's both. I think my life needs to be His story. My heart is so heavy...
I pray each of you remember that Christmas is not Glitz & Glamour, but about a baby that was born in Bethlehem.

~Merry Christmas & God Bless