Christmas

When Christ said: “I was hungry and you fed me,” he didn’t mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that’s real hunger. – Mother Teresa

On Christmas we celebrate the coming of Jesus – the Bread of Life – into our hungry lives. We celebrate the dawning of the light of peace and joy into the darkness of our confused and broken lives. We celebrate by being mindful of the hunger of those around us, and by making a special effort to do something about easing the hunger we see around us.

Christmas is a season in which to remind ourselves that we should have Christmas in our hearts every day. For Christmas is about receiving Love into our hearts and then sharing it with others. It is about taking a break from thinking for and about ourselves… and reconnecting with something larger and more significant than our individual concerns.

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Buble’s ‘Grown-up Christmas List’ rather struck my fancy. But I think it isn’t enough to have a wish list, for surely there is something I can do to make such a list a reality in my own life. What can I do that will bring about God’s kingdom here on earth?

[audio:http://animann.negimaki.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/03-grown-up-christmas-list.mp3%5D
Grown-up Christmas List
by Michael Buble

Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies
Well, I’m all grown-up now
Can you still help somehow?
I’m not a child, but my heart still can dream

So here’s my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Not for myself, but for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
That right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth?
Maybe only in that blind belief can we ever find the truth

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
That right would always win
And love would never end

This is my grown-up Christmas list
This is my only lifelong wish
This is my grown-up Christmas list