The Reason for the Season

Once again old father time has marched into the land of young just to remind us all that our time here is only on borrowed time and the only insurance for longevity is to love one another.
With the economy being on the down side, I ventured out into the local shopping mall to attempt putting a gift or two under the tree. What would have been a nerve wrecking trip in past was quite pleasant. Since I am not the only penny pincher looking for a bargain, the other souls though few, seemed in good spirits. The few things I managed to find worthy of resting under a beautifully decorated tree, I would have been embarrassed to claim in years past.
Reading scriptures related to advent and the coming of the real reason for the season I was taken back in time with my thoughts. Remembering when Christ was really the center of festivities and decorations, and local merchants greeted with a "Merry Christmas" and political correctness was never considered with Happy Holiday replacing the birth of Christ.
Growing up in a poor family in Colorado, only two Christmas's stand out. One was a year when my most treasured gift was a basket of fresh fruit, the other was a time I got a Roy Rogers outfit complete with guns and holsters. Expensive gadgets escaped my youth and I seemed to have survived, living with a land line telephone, a Philco radio with laughter and suspense coming out of speakers that only my mind could visualize, a brownie Kodak camera, a 35 cent movie ticket or a gallon of gas for about the same price.
As years have come and gone I tried to instill some the values of life handed down to me into my own children, but like the pied piper of stuff they have all fallen in line and at times I'm sure have forgotten the real reason for the season.
When driving down the road in the comfort of our shiny automobiles and burning $3:00 gas and seeing some poor soul standing in freezing weather on the corner with a cup in hand. do we curse and say what a lazy bum or do we wonder if maybe he just lost his job or had his home forclosed. Perhaps the change in our pockets could put a little nurisment in a belly or help find a warm place to sleep on the eve of the reason for the season