When love came down

So it's Christmas, yet again. I know this seems very Scrooge of me, but I honestly just wish it could be over. Don't get me wrong, I love the lights and sounds and smells and decor of the holidays, but the whole practice of Christmas just seems less and less meaningful as time goes on.

I remember as a kid, I would be sitting in my granddad's smoke-filled den, watching old Christmas films or something Nascar related. They would tell me to go to sleep, and I would lay there, wide awake, unable to contain my excitement. What was Santa going to bring me this year?

Growing older (and consequently more cynical) has taught me that much of what I thought to be true of Christmas simply isn't.

-Santa doesn't exist

-Peace on earth doesn't exist and never will

-The date, December 25th, was chosen to correspond with the Roman winter solstice celebrations. thus Christmas is nothing more than a Christianized pagan celebration anyway.

-The pretty little Nativity scene that we are all so familiar with is extremely inaccurate.

-Even most "churches" don't understand the past and origins of the modern day holiday.

It is becoming more and more frustrating to me how blatantly uneducated the American public, specifically those in our churches can be. Christmas is a time when, at least for now, we as Christians can bring the center of our faith to the forefront of American's minds. (And the minds of the rest of the world, for that matter.) Instead, we worry ourselves with frivolous follies such as whether or not the cashier at Wal-Mart wished you "Merry Christmas".

How ridiculously vain must we be?

Now that we've got that over with, I will be in TN without internet for a couple of days. so here and now I wish you, with the warmest intentions, a very merry Christmas.