What Christmas means to Me

Christmas isn't all about the presents and shopping and unwrapping gifts by the tree bright and early in the morning, although that is one of the biggest parts of it. But the most important part of Christmas is the Christ part, to me Christmas is the spirit of Christ. Growing up Christian, we've been a part of nativities for years, either watching or participating in the acting, and I've grown a lot closer to the story through that.

So what is the spirit of Christ?
The spirit of Christ to me, is pretty much everything good, like giving, charity, kindness, compassion, empathy, joy, and love. We celebrate Christ's birth here on the earth, because it was a miracle, his life changed the world forever, and even though he was the son of God he came to earth just like the rest of us, through a mother. Christ came to this earth for a very important purpose, to save us all, to die for our sins that we may be forgiving and be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father after this life. What a great gift we received through Christ, the atonement. Most of us never really think about how hard it must have been to die for the worlds sins. I mean think about it, people do some truly awful things, things that you might even want to kill them for, or punch them in the face for, like rape, murder, child abduction, sex trafficking, drug abuse, everything bad. But he was able to love them anyways, to love them without any hold back, he loved them whole-heartedly, he loved the sinner just as much as someone who hadn't done anything that wrong.
When I was going to wilderness and theraputic boarding school, I had the chance to meet all sorts of people, a lot of them were addicted to drugs, like weed, cocaine, heroine, meth, pain killers, molly, dust off, you name it, they'd done it. Most of them had other problems besides the drugs, like depression, OCD, abandonment issues, anxiety disorder, anorexia, bulimia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, pathological liars, and maybe the list goes on. But the thing is, all of us have problems, we may not have a diagnosis from a therapist or a psychiatrist, but we all have problems and fears, and pitfalls in our lives. The kids that I've met have done some pretty terrible things, you may even think they are terrible people, you may think they have no hope, but you don't know them. You don't know them the way God knows them, you can't see everything they have gone through, all the pain they have suffered, and all the emotions they are feeling. You will never be able to see deep down into someones soul, so you cannot judge them.
The most important thing I learned is to love these people despite their short falls, despite there mistakes, despite their problems. That is the most relate-able experience I have to what Christ is to us, and to what he's done for us. I learned to constantly forgive, and to forgive easily, to see past the mistake and see the person suffering and be there to comfort them. I don't think I could die for people's sins though, because to me, some things are too much for me to forgive. And that is why I am so very thankful for the Saviour, he didn't die for just some of us, but for all of us.

Along with the whole story of Christ, there is also the story of Santa Claus, and the gift of giving. Ever since I can remember my brother and I have woken up at the break of dawn, jumped on our parents bed and begged them to go and open presents with us, and everytime they just let us open our stockings first, while they slept in a couple hours longer. It has been so fun to shop for things for my family and friends throughout the years, and it is even more fun to make them hand made gifts.
This Christmas I really want to do something special for people who don't have much, I've seen alot of videos of people buying and giving gifts like shirts and food to the homeless, and that is something I really want to do over this holiday break.

Here are some videos of people giving and surprising homeless people in the kindest ways.