A question of belief

A few days ago, @atim1234 announced a contest on Christmas Card Greeting Design. It's an interesting challenge.

It is interesting in part because many members of the Steem community do not share in "Christian" beliefs. To test that theory, I will tell a little story.

Once upon a time, far, far away, a man was walking down a street. He encountered a crowd of angry villagers surrounding a fearful girl. It is unclear why each person was so angry, but the group's consensus was the girl had sexual relations with someone to whom she wasn't married. This crime was against the rules in this village. The punishment was to put her to death by stoning. The crowd asked the man why they shouldn't carry out the sentence. The man said, "go ahead, but only those who never sinned could pick up a stone."

I have paraphrased the story, but the question is, would you kill the girl? If you say no, you are a Christian. You might not read their book nor believe in Jesus, but choosing to make decisions based on love and the well-being of others is the "way" of being a true follower. If the pain you inflict on others, you will feel ten thousand times that amount; it probably suggests that you should offer "love" instead.

The traditions that people follow around Christmas celebrate Jesus in the way that he would approve. He would approve of spreading love and joy. When I was a teenager, several of my friends and I would go carolling. We would visit farms with older people. These people were shut-in due to the depth of snow (about a yard/metre deep). In some cases, we would have to walk through the snow from the road because their laneways were drifted in.

When my son was a member of the Cubs (a junior branch of the Boy Scouts), I went with them as they went to sing in the hospital. When I was in Ukraine, I received a knock at the door, and a bunch of neighbour kids threw oats and barley across my doorstep. It is a time that people can offer well-wishing to friends and neighbours.

Of course, there are gifts. One year, only my grandmother, my brother, and I opened presents at Christmas. There was a large box in wrapping paper. As we started to open it, my sister jumped out. She and my parents had been down at the Children's Hospital in Toronto and had driven three hours during the night to surprise us on Christmas Day. She died six months later. It isn't where you are, what you might get, or what you believe; the most crucial aspect of Christmas is who you are with.