I think materialism negatively affects society 364 days of the year, and many Vermont Christians who otherwise seem okay with materialism despise it on the one day I think it has positives: Christmas!
As a child, Christmas was always my favorite day of the year. It was a time when we received beautifully wrapped presents, ate great food, and got along exceptionally well. Growing up in Vermont’s stunning rural landscape, Christmas often meant a cold, white holiday, providing the perfect excuse to cozy up with our gifts.
Gifts helped make the time unique, something to look forward to and get excited about. I saw families and friends buying gifts for loved ones; something about this time of year was special. While I was not then a Christian, I enjoyed the season due to gifts and music. It drew me in, and I put my guard down to “listen” to the religious people, something I was reluctant to do the rest of the year. And I almost enjoyed church. I was not converted, but I noticed something special in the joy and gifts associated with Christmas.
Gifts are not a bad thing. God is a gift-giver, and just as parents want to give gifts to their children, so does he, because it makes us happy. And it is God who gave us joy, including the gift of his son to the world.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics, and is no part of Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
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