A Christmas Message For You - What You Need To Know

All over the world jingle bells are tolling and Christmas trees and decorations adorn homes and business premises. The atmosphere of Christmas is unmistakable. It is highly evocative. Turkeys and hampers are moving around as typical yuletide gifts despite the current global economic downturn, and the air is filled with moving carols.

There is no mistaking the season! Indeed, in many countries, the Christmas celebration actually started way back in October with shopping and aggressive sales promo aimed at stimulating consumption. Survey shows that no single religious festival is nearly as influential as Christmas. For many families, including non-Christian ones, it has become a time of family re-union, a time for catching up with friends and relations not seen for long.

There is therefore a tendency for all of this to make us miss the real significance of Christmas or to trivialise the reason for the season. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the founder of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ whom Christians believe to be God incarnate who came into a sinful world to save mankind.

Through his earthly ministry of love and caring, he gave hope to the hopeless, succour to the needy and healing to the sick and infirm. Jesus, according to the Bible, came to give life in abundance to those who would trust and believe in him. As God incarnate, nothing was impossible for him, yet he went about his earthly ministry in a disarmingly humble manner. He shunned all form of ostentation and bigotry, and hatred  to settle with those who disagreed with his teaching. Rather he prayed a great deal and demonstrated the gains of hard work.

Jesus was an exceptional role model. Little wonder his has become arguably the greatest name in the world today. Unfortunately, the ideals he espoused are hardly being followed by even those who profess to be his adherents. The love he preached and lived out has become a scare human value in the world today. This is particularly so in countries where those in authority would embezzle billions of public funds meant to improve the lives of the people without any qualms about it.

The exemplary compassion that Jesus showed to the weak the and the down-and-out  is so starkly lacking in our society today that exploitation has become the order of the day. This certainly cannot be the world that Jesus asked His followers to occupy till he comes. Should he return today, the society he will find is one that has dispensed with nearly all the virtues he canvassed for - godliness, love, mercy, compassion, meekness and self-contentment. Yet no society can make meaningful progress without these attributes.

Leaders and citizens of every countries need to be reminded that Christmas is much more than merry making. It offers us a great opportunity to reflect more deeply on the real meaning of life. Why are we here? Is it to simply amass wealth? Certainly not! As Christ himself taught his disciples, the whole duty of man is to love God and then his fellow man. That's the true essence of Christmas. And so while we enjoy the Carol services, the special meals and other trapping of the yuletide, we must also remember to spare a thought for the less privileged, the weak, the hospitalized and the imprisoned and make gesture of love to them. These are the things that Jesus Christ stands for.

On their part, our leaders-at all levels- must have a rethink of their attitude to the people. They must eschew greed and neglect, and embrace the virtues of goodwill to others which Christ preached tirelessly during his earthly ministry.

We wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year ahead!