Missing Something?

I know that I often have a hard time posting once a week, so twice a day is especially rare. But I'm back because I did something funny today and it sparked many thoughts.

I was getting ready to have lunch. We had some leftover soup, so I put that on the stove and went about making a sandwich. So I did what I usually do: open up the fridge and pull out my desired items to complete my ham sandwich. Before long, I had a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and spread before me I had my package of smoked black forest ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, Miracle Whip, and honey mustard. Well, after putting it all together and cutting it diagonally, I took my first scrumptious bite. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Another bite, and another, and yet another. Somewhere, as the delicious flavours combined in my mouth, it seemed something was missing, but I couldn't place my finger on it. All I knew was this was still really good. About halfway through, my eyes settled on the opened package of ham in front of me...Of all things I could have forgotten! I picked up the top triangle of bread and nestled a couple of slices on top of my honey mustard and mayo smeared lettuce. There. Now, it really was a ham sandwich.

How could I have forgotten the most important part? It's not a ham sandwich without ham! I know you're all thinking I have to be pretty dumb, but this brunette here is allowed one blond moment a day. Well, people do this all the time. There are people who call themselves Christians and Christ isn't evident in them at all. They claim to believe in something, teach something, do something, all in the name of Christianity, but somehow, it's still done without Christ. There are many people who like to teach good moral principles, but don't want to associate them with Christ. They could give you many legitimate reasons why you should or should not do something, why not to lie, steal, or "cheat" on your wife, but the simple fact that something is a command of God just doesn't seem to fit in. That could be really offensive, you know?!!

This year has gone by really fast again and Christmas is only a months away. Ooops! Did I just say CHRISTmas?!! Aahh, what a better time to focus on anything but the truth! Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic. The fact is, most people celebrate Christmas, especially stores! Time to roll in the big bucks! Many people could tell you by now they have all their shopping done, and everything is already neatly wrapped and lookin' right perty under the tree. Children are one hyper mess about everything they want. But go into a store. Look at the banners, flyers, advertisements: Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings...You don't see Merry Christmas very often anymore. That has Christ in it and they don't want to offend anybody! A big X is often used to replace the word, but that's only a short form, you know! It's ridiculous! Listen to music. You won't hear many traditional carols about the birth of Jesus in public anymore but anything else that sounds happy and upbeat that goes right with the hectic atmosphere and stressed out shoppers will be just wonderful.

At Christmas, we Christians celebrate Christ; the Son of God come to the world in the flesh. But what does the rest of the world celebrate? What is their reason for the gifts, banguets, dinners, get togethers and all the other fun stuff. What many celebrate is a lie, passed down from one generation to the next. Children are taught to celebrate the image of a big jolly man in a red suit with a snowy white beard that goes all over the world in one night with his reindeer and his sleigh bringing presents to all the "nice" and "good" people. A "holy day" has been covered up with lies and distractions to keep people from the truth.

I hope you get where I'm coming from in all this, even though I did have a bit of a rough time making my point. Just like you can't have a ham sandwich without ham, you can't have Christians or Christmas without Christ. This was for me a good reminder for me today and I hope it will be for all of you as well.