It is the week before Christmas and we are so busy shopping, sending and receiving emails that the meaning of Christmas seems to get lost once again.

Christmas started once upon a time as a way to remember a story, how in an occupied country a baby was born to poor parents who had faced rejection in looking for a place to stay. At the time of his birth, this baby was a nobody, an insignificant figure. At the time of this baby’s death, 33 years later, he was still an insignificant and rejected figure, barely mentioned in recorded history.

Christmas is now remembered by gifts given and received. Success not rejection, importance not insignificance is now associated with Christmas.

This year, for the first time in our forty plus years of marriage, we just have a small, artificial Christmas tree. There is no room on it for the many Christmas tree ornaments we have collected over the years. Not many gifts can fit on the table it rests on. Certainly there is no room for tinsel on this tree, a family tradition when I was growing up. Yet, I must admit this small, insignificant tree has some charm. In some ways it makes seeing the meaning of Christmas easier.

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