How prepared are you for Christmas?
By: Abraham Daljang Maker, Kampala Uganda.
As Christmas is drawing nearer, everything is in the mood of this festive season. Moving around Kampala city, I can smell Christmas fever everywhere as it is evidence by decorative flowers in shops and supper markets. A sound of Christmas song is heard in every corner. Prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing and the money is flowing from the public to the few hands of business men who are using this particular period to maximize their profits and plan the New Year when things will be tough to everyone.
Back to my small room at the university hostel where I am waiting for my intern slated for third January. I am reflecting on how I used to celebrate Christmas back in my small village Titagok. This is the period when I keep on nagging my mother to buy for me flip flops, small shorts and a T-shirt for Christmas. My mom could have no option other than making a local wine and sale it to buy for me these things. In those days, I would spend the whole night in church where I would witness the birth of Christ being dramatized by laymen and mothers union.
On the afternoon of Christmas day, I would join my friends and we would walk for more than 20KM to a trading center where everyone gathers to dance. I can still visualize the dust we could carry on our feet as we used flip flops. Each of us would come back home; tired and haggard from long walk and talk to our moms about the tale of the day before we would retire to our beds (beds on the floor made of papyrus or mats.)
Here in my hostel where all students have all gone home except my friend John and I, we are only waiting to go to church and pray and thank God for his love. He gave us his only son to be our savior. I am no longer crazy to ask my mom to buy for me flip flops because she is very far from me. Nonetheless, I could not even ask her to make local wine for flip flops because she expects me to be the one to provide for the family since I am already a grown up boy.
Reading a few Bible verses in my old mini Bile which I have been using since 2002, my eyes land on the verse which caught my attention in some torn pages in John 3:16 that “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and the only son so that whoever believe in him shall never perish but have eternal life…….” (NIV)
In this case, I realized that buying flip flops, new clothes, eating chicken, meat, and many other fabulous things are not prerequisite to celebrate this crucial event. Yes, these things are part of the celebration but should not be use as an excuse and complain that you need them. Whether you have them or not, Christ still lives, all you need is just to prepare your heart so that he is born in your heart. I believe that the birth of Christ is a symbol of the union between God and the man. Its symbolic significances in the contemporary world are that. Our sins are forgiven by his precious blood shed on the cross, this therefore reminds me that I was just giving hard time to mom but little did I know that all we need is to open up our hearts to Him and welcome the Lord.
As I conclude this, I wish all of you merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. I wish all of you the Seconds of Joy, Minutes of peace, Days of Love, months of splendid and years of Prosperity. Matthew 11:28-30.
By: Abraham Daljang Maker, Kampala Uganda.
As Christmas is drawing nearer, everything is in the mood of this festive season. Moving around Kampala city, I can smell Christmas fever everywhere as it is evidence by decorative flowers in shops and supper markets. A sound of Christmas song is heard in every corner. Prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing and the money is flowing from the public to the few hands of business men who are using this particular period to maximize their profits and plan the New Year when things will be tough to everyone.
Back to my small room at the university hostel where I am waiting for my intern slated for third January. I am reflecting on how I used to celebrate Christmas back in my small village Titagok. This is the period when I keep on nagging my mother to buy for me flip flops, small shorts and a T-shirt for Christmas. My mom could have no option other than making a local wine and sale it to buy for me these things. In those days, I would spend the whole night in church where I would witness the birth of Christ being dramatized by laymen and mothers union.
On the afternoon of Christmas day, I would join my friends and we would walk for more than 20KM to a trading center where everyone gathers to dance. I can still visualize the dust we could carry on our feet as we used flip flops. Each of us would come back home; tired and haggard from long walk and talk to our moms about the tale of the day before we would retire to our beds (beds on the floor made of papyrus or mats.)
Here in my hostel where all students have all gone home except my friend John and I, we are only waiting to go to church and pray and thank God for his love. He gave us his only son to be our savior. I am no longer crazy to ask my mom to buy for me flip flops because she is very far from me. Nonetheless, I could not even ask her to make local wine for flip flops because she expects me to be the one to provide for the family since I am already a grown up boy.
Reading a few Bible verses in my old mini Bile which I have been using since 2002, my eyes land on the verse which caught my attention in some torn pages in John 3:16 that “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and the only son so that whoever believe in him shall never perish but have eternal life…….” (NIV)
In this case, I realized that buying flip flops, new clothes, eating chicken, meat, and many other fabulous things are not prerequisite to celebrate this crucial event. Yes, these things are part of the celebration but should not be use as an excuse and complain that you need them. Whether you have them or not, Christ still lives, all you need is just to prepare your heart so that he is born in your heart. I believe that the birth of Christ is a symbol of the union between God and the man. Its symbolic significances in the contemporary world are that. Our sins are forgiven by his precious blood shed on the cross, this therefore reminds me that I was just giving hard time to mom but little did I know that all we need is to open up our hearts to Him and welcome the Lord.
As I conclude this, I wish all of you merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. I wish all of you the Seconds of Joy, Minutes of peace, Days of Love, months of splendid and years of Prosperity. Matthew 11:28-30.
Comments
Post a Comment