Christmas Madness, Mourning, and Meaning

If you have read my blog you know that I follow the news closely, especially stories that are different, sad, or interesting.  There have been some interesting news stories this Christmas season.  Sadly, there are the madness stories, you know the ones that I'm sure you have heard of from Black Friday.  People standing in crazy long lines to get that deal, then rushing in the doors, pushing and shoving trying to get where they want before someone else gets there.  This year there was the normal (which is NOT normal) stampedes, and people getting trampled and a bit knocked around.  But the one thing that made my jaw drop was the story of the woman who decided to pepper spray a crowd of people so they would not get the game or toy, or whatever it was that she wanted.  I just don't understand that mentality.  I don't think the idea of a season of giving includes pepper spray to the masses so that you could get what you really wanted.  And just last week there was the story of another group of people....who took a door off of its hinges, trampled over each other and had some fighting matches with each other all because of.....sneakers, yes, you heard me right, I said sneakers!  They were the new Michael Jordan sneakers that cost about $200 or so.  There was only a limited supply of them, so after all of that some people never even got them.  One guy even bought a pair of kids sneakers, even though he said he doesn't have kids yet.  He was just happy to have them for maybe someday.  Another unbelievable story of want.
Then there are the sad stories, stories of mourning that break the heart during this time.  Stories of houses burning down, or people losing their loved ones right before or after or even on Christmas.  Well, this year my heart just broke as I heard the news story of five people in a house who lost their lives in a fire.  Of course stories like this always break my heart, but this one had a few key elements that really got to me.  First, there were three little girls who were killed in the fire (7 yr. old twins and their 10 yr. old sister), their grandparents who were visiting were also killed, the mom and a friend were the only ones able to make it out alive after trying to get the rest of them out, and this happened early Christmas morning.  All of those things just really made me think.  This was a million dollar Victorian home...beautiful, the mom was a well known ad executive in New York.  So here is this successful woman, with a beautiful home and 3 beautiful little girls, and wonderful parents, getting ready to have a special Christmas day with her family.  Little did she know on this special day at about 4:30 in the morning her life would forever change.  Tragedy doesn't know success or money or status, it visits all.  It made me think of all the people pushing, shoving, fighting, pepper spraying, just to get the best gift for themselves or their family.  Would they see the foolishness in their actions after hearing of a tragedy like this?  Is that really so important now?  The paper quoted the mother as saying that her life was in that house, as the firefighters had to drag her and her friend away.  They had still been trying to get them out of the house.  It seemed that the grandfather was trying to help his granddaughters get out.  The firefighters said they found a stack of books by the window as if he were trying to help them get up to the window to get out.  They found the bodies by the books.  It was later found out that the cause of the fire was from embers from the fireplace.  It was also said that the mom was redoing some of the house and the fire alarms probably weren't set up.  Not only was the mom well known, but her father (the grandfather) was, too.  Just earlier that day before he got to their house he was doing his favorite thing for the holidays, dressing up as Santa at the mall.  Little did everyone know several hours later that he would be fighting for his life while he tried to save his grandchildren and wife.  What an awful tragedy!  Many of the firefighters were really struggling with this.  The chief spoke to the media and broke down a little.  They brought in grief counselors for these firefighters.  This will be a difficult thing for them to get over I'm sure.  As I think about this poor mom, Christmas will never be the same for her again.  But it also made me think of what Christmas means to people.  For some it's all about the decorations, the shopping, the gifts, for some it's the time with family and friends, for some it's celebrating the birth of Jesus, and for some it may be all of these or a mixture of some of them.
That's where the stories of the meaning of Christmas come in.  Now, as a Christian of course the real meaning of  Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior.  But Christmas is also about giving and sharing and showing love, and enjoying time with family and friends.  So the next couple of stories embody some of those things.  One thing I heard, not once, but actually a few different times is that there were "secret santas" who were going around paying off people's layaway items.  Some people went to the stores to either try to pay off their layaway items or to cancel them, only to find out that it had already been taken care of.  I heard of a couple of moms who actually went to the store to cancel, but weren't sure what they were going to be able to afford for their kids, when the person at the layaway desk told them their account had already been paid.  They were so pleasantly surprised and so thankful.  What wonderful Christmas spirit!  The last story was something I heard at the end of the 6:30 news.  It told about students from a certain school who had a special Christmas party where they all got just what they had asked for for Christmas when "Santa" showed up...all except one.  There was one little girl who didn't ask for anything, she didn't want anything...at least nothing that could be bought.  The only thing that she had asked  "Santa" for was for her father to come home from Afghanistan for Christmas.  That's a tough order for anyone.  So that day when "Santa" came to the classroom to give the other kids their gifts, the teacher had the little girl go sit on "Santa's" lap to tell him again what she really wanted for Christmas,which she told "Santa" again was her dad.  She had only seen him for two weeks in the past two years.  When she told him what she really wanted, "Santa" took off his cap and beard to show her that her Christmas wish had come true...it was her dad!!  She cried and just hugged his neck so hard....and I just cried...and cried!  Mom even came out to the kitchen to see if I was OK.  What a beautiful Christmas story!  
Lord, it's so easy for us to get caught up in all the madness of the season.  Sometimes mourning takes over, as well,  and we forget to just focus on the meaning.  Help us to think of the meaning and be willing to share with others as you shared with us!  Help us to be careful not to let the madness or the mourning, crowd out the true and beautiful meaning of Christmas.