CHRISTMAS

Christmas is around the corner. You can see the colourful decorations around the cities and it reminds me of the way It is celebrated back home.The feverish preparations of sewing new clothes, buying new shoes and all other paraphenalia that is usually attached to the festivity.
Back home, the churches will be falling over and stretching their frontiers by organizing crusades and religious carnivals. Most markets will spill over into major roads thereby making the motor-way impassable and hooting of car horns and apala music blaring from mounted loud speakers would complete the earsplitting ever chaotic scenario- as typical of Oshodi.

Christmas has different meaning to different people. In the U.K, based on my observation and experience, christmas is a festive period when people shop for new clothes, bags , shoes and all other decorative stuff. It is also seen as a period when gift items are exchanged with loved ones. Whereas, to an insignificant few, Christmas is to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.
All around the world, Christmas has become the biggest commercial festival- where nearly every marketable item soar in sales and profit.
Yet, the very essence of this celebration/ festival is lost to many. Christmas! What does it mean to you?

I once made a terrible mistake of raising this question with my white British friends... do you know what they made of my question? They laughed at me and made me look ridiculous. But I sympathized with them! I sympathized with them because 'they do not know what they do.'
I tried to englighten them that Christmas is the commemoration/ celebration of the birth of the Saviour- Jesus Christ- who came when the world was in utter darkness and at the verge of being consumed by the Darkness.
He it was who dispelled the Darkness- by showing us what to do and the path to follow by speaking and ancoring the Truth on earth. Hence, He is the way, the Truth and the Light...
One of them gave me this bewildered look and spoke the blasphemous words...'f...k Jesus'.
At that point, I felt really sorry for them! I felt sorry for them because they don't know Jesus Christ, and they are not ready to even accommodate the thought.

Christmas is here again. Let us celebrate and commmemorate the birth of Christ without losing sight of the significance of His coming and why he was crucified. By so doing, we will illuminate our little corner of the world and dispel the Darkness further.