Article December 22, 1980 Issue

Seeing Christlikeness at Christmas

ROBERT L. GATES

How do you celebrate Christmas?

If you get unreasonably caught up in the customary rituals and commercialism of the season, you perhaps feel guilty. Most of us, however good our intentions, often seem to get trapped by traditions built up over many years. This is not to say that genuine family sharing and celebration are wrong. Often these hint at something deeper.

But I have to admire the spiritually based ingenuity and great love some good friends—Christian Scientists—evidenced a few seasons back. They sent us a beautiful Christmas card, which they said would be their last. In future, they explained, the hours usually spent addressing and mailing such greetings would be put to better use—that of quietly, prayerfully recognizing and affirming the spiritual nature of man. They felt they could include all their friends and acquaintances—in fact, the whole world—in an acknowledgment of God's infinite blessings. What better way to commemorate the coming of Christ to human consciousness than to identify and appreciate the Christlikeness of the sons and daughters of God! Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 262;

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