THE GIFT OF A DREAM (30); THE CHRISTMAS DREAM

Jesus

As we celebrate yet another Christmas and I consider all the paraphernalia that accompanies the season, the merriment, carols, hampers, exchange of gifts, reunion of friends and families huddled together over meals and much laughter, it is easy to lose sight that the entire Christmas package was a dream in the mind of the Almighty God, a plan hatched from before the world’s foundations to save man from sin and deliver the gift of salvation.

This is how Brain L. Habor puts it in His Ministers Manual of 1993. When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus in A.D. 353, who would have ever thought that it would become what it is today. When Professor Charles Follen lit candles on the first Christmas tree in America in 1832, who would have ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are today. It is a long time since 1832, longer still from 353,

longer still from that dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus the king was born. Yet, as we approach December 25 again, it gives us yet another opportunity to pause, and in the midst of all the excitement and elaborate decorations and expensive commercialization which surround Christmas today, to consider again the event of Christmas and the person whose birth we celebrate.

Never discard your dream no matter how small and insignificant it may seem to you, a dream put in the heart of a man has the ability to impact the world for generation to come, like the dream of the automobile, electricity and a man on the moon, like Christmas your dream will outlive you and bless many after you, just have the courage to pursue it. Merry Christmas.