There were three men around the fire, with the smell of coffee and of bacon frying. It was a two-bit camp in mighty rough country, with three saddle-broncs and a packhorse standing under a lightning-struck cottonwood. "Howdy," I said. "You boys receivin' visitors, or is this a closed meetin'?" They were all looking me over, but one said, "You're here, mister. Light and set."
From "The Man From the Broken Hills" by Louis L'Amour


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Merry...well, you know.


Where I work, we receive quite a few Christmas cards (that's not the correct term anymore, as I'll demonstrate) from our customers, vendors, consultants, etc. I would estimate that we received in excess of seventy or so that were addressed to our office staff. I kept count this year to see how many actually said "Merry Christmas".

The sad result is 3.

3 cards which read "Merry Christmas". Two of these depicted the Manger Scene, and the other one had a cartoon train overflowing with presents and reindeer. All of the other cards said some variation of "Happy Holidays", "Seasons Greetings", or the hypocritical "Wishing You the Peace of the Season", as if there could be any peace without the Manger.

It seems the coup is over. What we became aware of just a few short years ago when retailers began to omit "Merry Christmas" from ads and store banners has resulted in an Advent season with no Savior.

Indeed, Christ has been successfully erased from Christmas. Or at least denegrated to a fairy tale along side the jolly fat man.

How did Christians, who at least statistically still amount to a majority in this Country, allow this to happen?

Anyway, I indeed hope you have Happy Holidays filled with the Joy that comes from Christ.
I send to you Seasons Greetings in the name of our Lord.
I pray that you have the Peace and Joy that comes from knowing Christ.

Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

merry Christmas Dbro...
wish you were here.

from big dbro

PS

happy B-Day Chelle...