Love and Christmas

I really want to post today.  I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head, mostly about love and compassion and the magic of Christmas and how people pull together in hard times.  But the words refuse to come to me.  I want to say that Christmas is about love: God gave Jesus to the world, and Mary loved God enough to risk pregnancy as an unwed woman in the ancient world, and Joseph loved Mary enough to stick with her as she had Someone Else's child.  Then Joseph loved Jesus, too.  Which, I mean, he put up with a baby/toddler for Mary.  And God, I guess. :)  To me, that is a huge deal.  Some people don't even put up with their own children.

But even if you don't adhere to Christian theology, Christmas-- even commercialized and secularized and all those other buzz words-- still remains about love.  Each gift under those trees, every package sent through the mail, represents love.  They represent thought and care.  They represent the strong bonds we feel towards our family and friends.  We condemn the commercialization of the season, but I think the abundance of presents, holly, Christmas movies, and music is really just people wanting to give love and feel love.  We watched Love Actually last night and the beginning really got to me, especially in light of the events of last Friday, about how it might seem that the world is a terrible, greedy, awful place, but if we look for it love exists everywhere.  Quietly, non-news-worthy, but there.  There in every smile, every gift, every cookie, every too-long-car-ride to another state to visit family.  There in every hug and every random act of kindness.

That's what Christmas is about, Charlie Brown.