ho ho merry christmas

so now that christmas is gone and all the stress is over with it has kind of hit me that this is not what christmas was suppose to be like. we have taken the "christ" out of christmas and replaced it with greed, the very evil that God despised. God sent his only son to die on the cross and we have turned it into a holiday filled with stress and greed. This season i thought more about what I needed to buy for people and what I wanted for christmas then about what christmas is really about. Giving is always good and God always encouraged giving in the Bible but it is so mechanical now that we really don't do it to bless another person but to fulfill an obligation and get something in return. When was the last time you just handed a stranger $50 for no benefit for yourself. Today it seems like all giving is publicized. God said to give in secret and He will reward you openly. This should not be our goal in giving but it is an advantage. There are so many needy people in the world and "we" have plenty. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of the man that died on the cross for our sins yet i haven't seen one reminder of that this year. Its quit sad to see that Christmas is not what it used to be. Now when children think of christmas they think of the big fat man in the red suit instead of the man in the loin cloth with a crown of thorns nailed to a cross as he said, "father forgive them for they know not what they do." Christmas is now just another commercialized holiday.