The story is told of a 24-year old boy looking out of聽 the train鈥檚 window shouting鈥� 鈥淒ad, look the trees are going behind!鈥�
Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24-year old鈥檚 childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed鈥� 鈥淒ad, look the clouds are running with us!鈥�
The couple couldn鈥檛 resist and said to the old man鈥� 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you take your son to a good doctor?鈥� The old man smiled and said鈥� 鈥淚 did, and we are just coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth; he just got his eyes today.鈥�
Do you ever want to go back to the time when you were driving to grand-father鈥檚 house at Christmas time, looking out the car window to see the 鈥渢rees go behind鈥� and the 鈥渃louds run with you鈥�? You know you can.
Christmas time is a time of mind over matter; and if you don鈥檛 mind, it doesn鈥檛 matter. Mark Twain said: 鈥淎ge is a matter of mind over matter, if you don鈥檛 mind, it doesn鈥檛 matter.鈥� And isn鈥檛 this the case with how we view and prepare for Christmas?
We can take the November Christmas carols for example. I tuned my car radio to a 24-hour Christmas carol station. For the first few days it made me a more cheerful person, often humming a carol as I went into a store or picked up the mail.
For a while I even watched Christmas ads in November. When I had my fill, my language stayed clean, but I changed to another station or used the fast-forward button. The point is, we have a choice.
Patience in the long line-ups of traffic or shoppers is another matter. An abbot once told me, 鈥淭here are two ways you can wait in the line, patiently or impatiently. It takes the same amount of time.鈥� If you don鈥檛 mind, then these situations really don鈥檛 matter.
鈥淚magine you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 each morning. The account carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every dollar each day!
鈥淲e all have such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever time you have failed to use wisely. 鈥ou can鈥檛 borrow against yourself or use more time than you have.鈥� (Internet 鈥� Motivational Stories
So how do you use your time to prepare for Christmas? You have a choice. You can go back to the Christmas carols, the Christmas Spirit of giving and sharing. You can make family a priority. You can plan the Midnight Mass or worship service where the true meaning is celebrated.
You have the time! 86,400 seconds per day! The Lord even gave us a seventh day where we are encouraged to use time free from work for family and church. Is Christ in our Christmas? We can say, 鈥淢erry Christmas!鈥� and sing the songs that tell the Christmas story.
Let鈥檚 see, there鈥檚 鈥淪ilent Night鈥�, 鈥淥 Holy Night鈥�, 鈥淭he First Noel鈥�, 鈥淛oy to the World鈥�, and even 鈥淲hite Christmas鈥�. And we can conclude with, 鈥淲e Wish You a Merry Christmas鈥�!
