Christmas, Christians, and Hope

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  • Christmas, Christians, and Hope
    Christmas, Christians, and Hope
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As Christmas has arrived, I’ve been trying to put the last year into perspective. Honestly, it has been a rotten year. Shutdowns due to COVID-19, the funkiest presidential election in memory, and a government that is out of control have led me to write more than a few columns that suggest that we are in for some very hard times.

Then again, the history of mankind has mostly been about hard times. The last 300 years or so have been a major aberration. For most of time, the vast majority of people have lived in subjugation of one form or another. Now we seem headed for a new era of subservience to “new” ideas about what it means to be human and free.

One feature of these new ideas is that they at odds with most of organized religion, if not absolutely counter to the tenets of them. The major proponents of these new ideas are, for the most part, irreligious, regardless of their statements to the contrary. Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi say they are Catholics, but I can assure you that they are Catholics in name only.

The gods of the new ideas are like the Roman gods, tolerant of all kinds of deviant behavior, and supportive of all manner of discrimination. In fact, the state might as well be the new god. We are seeing that in Communist China where Christians and Jews are being forced to modify the 10 Commandments to put the State before God Almighty.

So I look at the situation in our country and in the world and breathe a heavy sigh. And then I think about Christmas. How is it that God Almighty sent is Only Begotten Son to show us the way to everlasting life? And I start to see things differently.

I know that no matter how difficult things get, no matter how much evil there is in the world, my ultimate goal is to achieve heaven. I think back over the previous century and consider how many Ukranains were starved to death, how many Jews, Christians, Gypsies, and other “undesirables” were sent to the gas chambers, how many Chinese were summarily executed, and how many souls Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge marched to their death.

I start counting my blessings that I live in a very “red” state, in a community where life revolves around the local church and the local school. And then I have hope.

It’s a hope that has lived among Christians since the time of the apostles, that no matter how bad things are in this life, there is an afterlife where we will be given our just reward. And that reward will be based on what we did and not on what others did.

So this Christmas, plan to reach out to your neighbors with a little more zeal than previous years. Spread the cheer that comes in the knowledge that despite our differences, most of us do believe in a just and loving God and in the rewards for lives well spent. In that way we can magnify the hope that we have and that our neighbors have.

May you have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.