Christmas

Christmas decorations have come up all over Singapore which means only one thing - sales, sales and more sales. People all over the country are going around doing their Christmas shopping, whether or not they celebrate Christmas. The other day at the neighbourhood mall, there were 5 or 6 announcements of missing children from 4-12 years of age. Their parents must've been really into the shopping mood :)

Despite all the hype, Christmas is not for another month or so. For us Catholics, Christmas comes only after four weeks of Advent, which is a time of spiritual preparation for Christ's coming. It signifies the thousands of years of waiting of God's people for His promised Saviour. In modern times, we are still waiting for His coming, a second coming. Life on earth, I believe, is a preparation for that second coming, when we will be judged.

However, in modern times, the physical preparations for Christmas far outweigh the spiritual preparations done to receive the child Jesus. We go through so much trouble shopping, getting gifts, new clothes, new furniture, preparing feasts an so on that we actually forget what the celebration is really about. And when it's time to celebrate Christ's coming, we drop dead with exhaustion and stop celebrating just as Christ comes into our lives. 

(For those who don't know, Christmas is the 2nd most important celebration for Christians, with Easter being the most important. It starts on the 25th of December and lasts for 12 days. However, most people only celebrate and make merry on Christmas eve and Christmas day itself, after which life goes on without meaning.)

That is why, I for one, will pledge to spend Advent preparing for Christ's coming (as well as exams :| ) and celebrate Christmas fully knowing that Christ has come into my life and the time will come when we are all judged. So I urge whoever that's reading this to join me. To prepare for Christ's coming just as how His people were waiting for Him in times of turmoil and suffering and to prepare for His second coming by the giving of ourselves to Him.

I leave you now with this quote: 

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. 

~ C.S. Lewis ~