Simplify

When I think of that first Christmas I don't imagine decorations and lighting displays. I can't imagine frosty the snowman or rudolf with his shiny nose issues.
Bigger, brighter, better were not the central theme or mantra of the time!

What I can picture in my mind is something highly meaningful, if not totally understood.
From the accounts in the Bible, I can picture for myself a small family taking in those first moments after a lady has just given birth. Coming to terms with the implications of becoming a new family.

If you were like the Shepherds or Wise Men who came to visit Mary in that makeshift maternity ward previous known known as a cow shed. I think you would taken by the simplicity of the whole thing...
Nothing special, clean and even organised about this first Christmas at all.

Now jump some 2015 years later give or take a calendar adjustment here and there...and now you and I face our own Christmas Season.
If there is anything from the first I can take to the latest it is this...
Simple is how it started and maybe simple is what is needed now for it to be special, for it to have meaning for me in 2015?

I am a huge fan of lights and trees, food and festivities!
But ultimately I want something simple.
That is why lunch with some friends on Christmas Day means so much to me.
The simpleness of sharing a BBQ and singing some Christmas Carols is also high on my list each Christmas Eve.

Someone once said "Big Is Good" while encouraging us to spend in their store.
Today I say "Simple Is Best" while encouraging you to find meaning this Christmas for yourself.

Something to think about...