celebrating a holiday and practicing religion are two different things.
what holidays do you take off work or celebrate? do you worship the focal point of that holiday?
You know, I was waiting for someone to ask that question, for a long time. Christmas - Is for me from 2200 the 24th until 0200 the 25th. Everyone is in bed. The lights are out in the house but for the fire in the hearth and a candle or two. I use a hurricane lamp to read by, and as I sit by the fire, I reflect on what the Birth of Jesus means to me, to my family, and the world. For that few short hours each year, it seems as if the thinness between heaven and earth is the sheerest of veils. Now I know, Jesus wasn't born on the morning of the 25th of December, but I'm able to let that go, and simply accept that He was born, of humble means to a humble family, but the significants is enormous, and though I don't deserve it, He did it anyway.
Easter - Is for me from 0400 Sunday morning untill 0800 (or when the day is in dawn). Again, everyone is asleep, and I sit watching the darkest night, lighten into gray, then azure, and pink and orange, then finally soft blue. I am reminded that the darkest of night is proceeded by the dawn of the new day. Dawn and first sunrise, is the only moment when a man can look fully into the sun, and not damage his eyes. Jesus must have been like that to those who first saw Him after His ressurection. He allowed those to observe Him don his mantle of divinity. At first, shady and shadow, then the beginning of a warm light, to final brilliance so great it hurt one's eyes to look directly on.
No wonder nothing really mattered to His followers after that.
I guess those are the times to me, when celibrating the holiday means nothing, and understanding one's faith, means everything.
v/r
Joshua
