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Saturday, November 28, 2020

What Christmas Giving Would Jesus Encourage?

 

With a 20% discount, this silk
Christmas tie is a mere $19.95.
When we received our 84-page gift catalog from Christianbook.com last week I looked forward to checking out some good reading material from this distributer, one that typically offers some great prices on current faith-related titles.

Only to discover that this was their Christmas "Gifts & Home Accents" edition, one that included no books or other reading material whatever. Instead, there were pages after pages of "Stoneware Word Mugs" with Bible texts, tote bags with words like "The Lord will guide you always," tee shirts and sweat shirts emblazoned with Christmas themes, "FBI" (Firm Believer in Jesus) and multiple other adjustable caps, and all manner of Christmas cards, candles, calendars, creches, jewelry, and tree ornaments.

OK, I don't want to be labeled a Grinch here, and I could see having a couple of pages of holiday-themed trinkets for sale, but is there any way Jesus could be honored by having his birth celebrated with 84-pages of religious trivia?

I'm thinking Jesus might actually weep at the direction many of his followers appear to be taking here, and strongly recommend alternatives like some generous gifts to help homeless or refugee families during this Advent season, or a handwritten note of encouragement (if a visit isn't possible) to some lonely folks in the community. 

After all, whose birthday is it, anyway? 

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2016/12/lets-keep-christ-out-of-our-christmas.html

3 comments:

Tom said...

...I think that we need to remember that there are two Christmas holidays, one religious and one secular. Our Christian, capitalist society can't make up its mind which it prefers best.

harvspot said...

Too often it seems we're trying to fuse the two together.

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