December 11, 2006

Good morning, two weeks until Christmas Day! Listening to Christmas songs on the radio, Holly on XM 103, I am occasionally rewarded with a real gem. In her rendition of O Christmas Tree, Aretha Franklin pauses to remind us of the real reason for Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That should be done far more often by those who claim to be blessed. Often you will see the stars in the media acknowledge that they are blessed with a great talent, usually leaving us to guess whom they were blessed by. Some state it as though they received their blessing in some form of baby lottery and thus they owe nothing in return. The reasoning is that they did not choose to be blessed with a talent for singing, acting, or whatever, and thus they are only sharing with others to the best of their ability and gaining all they can along the way.
Jesus assures us that they have their reward. I believe that God likes to see gratitude for all of our blessings, and the more we thank Him for, the more we discover that we are blessed in so many ways. Listing our blessings is a great way to realize just how grateful we should be, and our writing or typing fingers will wear out before we can list every blessing!
Well, another piece of bad news for the 97% of people in the country who celebrate Christmas. The Sea-Tac or Seattle-Tacoma airport has decided to remove the nine Christmas trees and decorations celebrating Christmas rather than place a large Jewish menorah on display. A rabbi threatened to sue if they did not comply, and so they removed the trees. Too often we are ruled by a small percentage through the bludgeon of attorney’s fees. “They’ve darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up,” the rabbi’s lawyer, Harvey Grad said, “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”
Not the Jewish community, but perhaps a certain rabbi… Just for that, the Christmas trees will come out in my home tonight! Praise God that we can still celebrate the birth of our Lord at home!

Bucky