Eyes Of The Christmas Child

Feel anything different around you? Smell something nice? See a lot more smiling faces? Hear songs about reindeers and sleighs and Frosty and silent night? Having a hard time getting up in the mornings?

On the other hand, do you also see some grumpy people around? Hear stories of loves lost on Christmas? How about having people tell you they wish it wasn't Christmas-time 'cause they didn't have money? Or have Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer segue to I'll Have A Blue Christmas Without You on the radio and hear the person sitting next to you sigh, the next thing you know, she's crying about having given her heart last Christmas and then having it thrown away the next day? (Yeah, I'm thinking of that George Michael song.)

See more glitters and bells? Christmas trees, bare or adorned? Lanterns on windows; strings of red, yellow and green lights; tinsels and shiny balls?

I've got to ask all of you one question though: Has there ever been a time in your life that you looked at Christmas through the eyes of a child?

When Christmas draws near, do you look at Christmas with the tired, worn-out expression of dread on having to go through with it again? Do you belong to the group of people who lost that happy Christmas feeling because of some childhood discovery that Santa Claus was just your daddy putting goodies on the stocking you hung by the window?

Was there ever a time when you saw beyond the gifts you were expecting to receive? Or beyond the money you were going to be given by your relatives, godmothers, and godfathers?

Or do you face Christmas head-on with the enthusiasm only a child could possess? This, in spite of the hardships and trials you have been forced to face and endure during the year?

When you smell the fresh air of Christmas mornings, do you get excited because you feel that the time that you could touch Jesus is drawing nearer and nearer?

When you see a child holding his gift tight, do you remember if you've held a gift just as tightly as that once, not because you wanted the gift for yourself, but because you were saving the gift you were given for another child less fortunate than you?

Now that you are older, and are less likely to display the emotions you showed when you were a child, how do you see Christmas with your eyes?

When you look in the mirror, who is it do you see that's looking back at you? If you peer closer, do you see a weathered, worldly, disillusioned self?

Or can you see the eyes of the Christmas Child looking back at you, trying to pull you into seeing Christmas with all its promises of Hope, Peace, Love, and Salvation?