Christmas Shopping

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING Before the days of Christmas I shopped everywhere. I couldn't stand the music. I couldn't stand the glare. The thing that I most wanted was to go out on a walk. God listens to me best when I am free to talk. God listens to me best when I can see His love. It's in His trees and bushes and even in God's dove. But when I walk through stores and concern myself with things, it's just as if He never came, and all my thoughts are dreams. I would rather address Christmas cards whenever I feel like it. No one else would understand, but I know I'd really like it. Tradition makes a fool of me, and ties me with life's string. Every year I fight the crowds and destroy what God wants to bring. This year I'm going to be a friend to those I don't yet know. I'm going to spread the love of God wherever I may go. And if I can't get those December Christmas wishes out, everyone will know by January God has been about. Christmas is a reality. It's the story of God's Son. It isn't bags or tassels, or treasures to be won. As I was getting off the escalator in front of me just ahead, a lady with a torn up bag smiled at me and said: "They certainly don't make bags like they did Christmas' before." "That's probably not a real bag," I said. "They don't make them anymore." Janet Marie Bingham