KEEPING CHRISTMAS
So This Is Christmas....
It is a good thing to observe Christmas
day. The mere marking of times and
seasons, when men agree to stop work and
make merry together, is a wise and
wholesome custom.
It helps one to feel the supremacy of
the common life over the individual
life. It reminds a man to set his own
little watch, now and then, by the great
clock of humanity which runs on sun
time.
But there is a better thing than the
observance of Christmas Day, and that
is, keeping Christmas.
Are you willing to forget what you have
done for other people, and to remember
what other people have done for you;
To ignore what the world owes you, and
to think what you owe the world;
To put your rights in the background and
your duties in the middle distance, and
the chances to do a little more than
your duty in the foreground;
To see that your fellow men are just as
real as you are, and to try to look
behind their faces to their hearts,
hungry for joy;
To know that probably the only good
reason for your existence is not what
you are going to get out of life, but
what you are going to give to life;
To close your book of complaints against
the management of the universe, and look
around you for a place where you can sow
a few seeds of happiness... are you
willing to do these things even for a
day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and
consider the needs and the desires of
little children;
To remember the weakness and loneliness
of people who are growing old;
To stop asking how much your friends
love you, and ask yourself whether you
love them enough;
To bear in mind the things that other
people have to bear on their hearts;
To try to understand what those who live
in the same house with you really want,
without waiting for them to tell
you;
To trim your lamp so that it will give
more light and less smoke; and to carry
it in front so that your shadow will
fall behind you;
To make a grave for your ugly thoughts,
and a garden for your kindly feelings,
with the gate open ... are you willing
to do these things even for a day? Then
you keep Christmas.
Are you willing to believe that love is
the strongest thing in the world ...
stronger than hate, stronger than evil,
stronger than death ... and that the
blessed life which began in Bethlehem
ninteen hundred years ago is the image
and brightness of the Eternal Love?
Then you keep Christmas.
And if you keep it for a day, why not
always?
But you can never keep it alone.
by Henry Van Dyke