Let’s talk about Christmas. Not the corporate America version. The one founded on the birth of a man who lived 2000 years ago.

No, I’m not about to attempt to promote the religious aspect of the holiday. There’s another reason to re-evaluate the growing opinions that the season is nothing more than an occasion for gift giving.

2000 years ago one person who was born and his activities as he lived changed human history forever. Not one living person can explain the events back then, but no one can deny the results.

Were it not for that man and his life, it’s quite likely our world today would not exist as we live it.

Yet as with any life altering event, there were, are, and always will be people who decide to use it for personal gain. Power, as we all know too well, is addictive. So through the centuries thousands of religious and political leaders, kings, and queens, took advantage of what that man created and used that power corruptly.

Yet there were also millions of men and women who followed that man’s teachings and helped so many people who would never receive assistance elsewhere. They asked for nothing in return. And too some of them died for what they chose to use their life to accomplish.

And as decades turned into centuries the number of Christians grew exponentially. Why? It’s simple really. They had a belief that guided them through the most difficult times as well as the best of times. They practiced behavior that in this time of social media is mocked and ridiculed by people who refuse to think anything or anyone might be better than themselves. People who require a nod of internet fame they gather using videos of themselves doing “good” to feel like, well, I don’t know what.

The people you never read or hear about that daily reach out to help anyone in any type of need are the ones doing good. They don’t give a hoot about how anyone thinks or feels regarding the help they give or the actions they take.

So yeah, you can walk with the growing mass of humanity that believes in nothing much beyond self-gratification, and laughs at and condemns those who still believe that Christmas is about something far more important than gift giving.

Yet at the end of the day, saying Merry Christmas without passing a gift too, means you’ve gone beyond the modern traditions and are wondering if there isn’t really something more important, something more fulfilling. Because there really is.

Merry Christmas