Every December, when Christmas is approaching, I have this feeling that it’s all a lot of Much Ado About Nothing. Traffic is at its worst; events, meetings and presentations abound; our schedule tightens; it’s impossible to go on vacation; and we come out on December 27 or 28 with our souls overwhelmed by exaustion. Why is it so, year after year? Of course, children love this time, normally more than any other time, but this love we certainly have “bought” with presents, haven’t we? I believe that the great hustle and stress come from a big effort not to see something, which happens to be the very reason of Christmas itself. That is, we are running a birthday party without the birthday child. There are the gifts; there’s lots of food and drink; a happy atmosphere is in the air (the so-called “Christmas Spirit”), but… the foundation is missing. The guest of honor is no longer present (in fact, we may have replaced him with Santa Claus). Of course, there are also problems with the original Christmas holiday: it was imposed by the Church to overshadow pagan solstice feasts; therefore, the time of the year is probably wrong, and more, an imposed celebration combined with commercial interests takes out much of the joy. What makes me sad, though, is not so much the mistake of “kidnapping” the reason of the party, but rather the great loss we have by not taking part in the true reason to celebrate, which is: Jesus, the Son of God come to earth to free us from our wrongdoings (which the Bible calls “sins”). It’s the first time in history that a hero has come to rescue captives, and is ignored by most of them - still. My Christmas wish to you, dear reader, is that you invite the birthday boy back to your party, and thus may find better grounds to be very happy and to live in peace the whole year. Cheers!

Karl Kepler

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