It
is a good thing to observe Christmas Day. The mere marking of times and seasons,
when men agree to stop working and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome
custom.
It
helps one feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds
a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity
which runs on sun's time.
But
there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is keeping
Christmas.
Are
you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what
other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think
what you owe the world, to put your rights in the background, and your duties
in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in
the foreground, to see that your fellowmen are just as real as you are, and try
to look behind their faces to their hearts' hunger for joy; to know that probably
the only good reason for our existence is not what you are going to get out of
life, but what you are going to give to life, to close your book of complaints
against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where
you can sow a few seeds of happiness…are you willing to do these things even
for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are
you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children;
to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop
asking how much your friends love you, and ask the things that other people have
to bear in their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same
house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you, to trim your
lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front
so that your shadows will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts,
and a garden for your kindly feelings with the gate open…are you willing
to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are
you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world…stronger
than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death…and that the blessed life
which began in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago is the image of, and
brightness of Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.
And
if you keep it for a day, why not always?
But
you can never keep it alone. | 
