Merry Christmas? Maybe. But not all will have a good night.

I can't resolve this. Maybe one of you can. I have been to the Philppines and I have seen real poverty. Not American poverty but real poverty. It is the Chistmas season and I am beside myself. How can I eat drink and be merry when I know that children are scarring their hands by pulling nails from planks so that their families can eat today. Or that 13 + year old girls are being sent to the big cities to become prostitures so that their families can eat.  Or that many of those girls become so addicted to drugs that they get pregnant, give birth, and their babies starve to death. Merry Christmas!? I know that in Matthew 26:11 Jesus that we will always have the poor with us but that was in context with explaining to his disciples that his time here would be short. How do I reconcile any of this? I have met these people. I have preached to these people. I have touched and been touched by them. Again, Merry Christmas?! Jesus Christ, being God, became one of us (see Phil 2:5-11)to take our deserved punishment because He loved us and we could not redeem ourselves. Christmas, to us, is the celebration of the advent of that gift. A gift we did not ask for nor did we deserve. Dickens tried to tell us. I don't think I can afford Christmas for my wife and family this year and frankly I am not sure if I care. At some level,  I think they agree. They were there. They saw it too. So what do I do? Merry Christmas does not make me feel joyful and  triumphant when I know for a fact that there are people who know about Christmas and yet care less about celebrating it because for them it is just another day to try and survive.

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