Last night while flipping through tv channels, I came across "A Charlie Brown Christmas". A Christmas classic from my childhood. I can remember receiving the book one year as a child. On IMDB's (International Movie Data Base)website the film is described like this:
"Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas." Maybe this has been part of my pondering...
The transition from Indonesia to America hasn't been THAT difficult for us. There are a few things where we think," Woah, that's different." For the most part when we go to the grocery store we're grateful for the selection! In Indonesia if you want a bottle of BBQ sauce, you get one choice of flavor or brand and you pay whatever the asking price is. You do have endless varieties of instant noodles though. One thing that has been slapping me in the face is this compulsion to BUY. BUY. BUY.
When we returned for a seven month furlough in June, I wanted to BUY. I wanted to go shopping to the stores that I hadn't been to in three years. I wanted to buy clothes! I just wanted. I asked the Lord to release me from this compulsion to buy, and He did.
Maybe this has been part of my pondering...
Charlie Brown brings in his Christmas tree for the cast of the play to see. They laugh at how it looks. Then they turn their laughter to Charlie himself. I can just imagine how he must have felt. Even your closest friend pointing and laughing at you. He finally just yells out "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!" I have found myself asking the same thing.
Here's how the TV/Society tells me what Christmas is all about:
- Buy a Lexus with a red bow around it
- Buy gifts from under $100 (I guess $99.99 is still under that $100 mark)
- Don't miss the door buster deals starting at 10PM on Thanksgiving Day
- Do whatever it takes to get that great deal! (Use pepper spray if you must!)
- Buy diamonds
- It isn't Christmas without Starbucks Christmas flavors! (Has the Christmas Season started if you haven't tried a Peppermint Mocha?)
- It seems that Christmas is a time to ignore the basic rules of the English language and allows us to use "merry" as a verb and spell "season" as "ceason" to fit the initials of our network.
- Don't forget the "epic" battle between Mom and Santa.
- Christmas is about being on your best behavior because a little Elf who sits on a shelf will give a final report to Santa regarding your nice-ness or naughty-ness.
I could go on and on but I'm asking myself:
"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!"
2 comments:
Great Post...Love the Charlie Brown Christmas...some of your thoughts made me think and realize just how commercialized Christmas really has become...Love you!
I've been thinking so much about this! I saw a sign the other day that said, we are not trying to enjoy the Christmas season, we are trying to survive it. How sad that we celebrate the birth of our Savior with stress and credit cards! I've been trying my very best to take time to stop and realize that even if my cookies burn and I forget a gift for another party, Jesus is what it is about. Thanks for the great reminder... :)
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