Too poor to stand in line

Just when I am trying to stay in a loving, peaceful place Christmas comes along. In the name of (Christ?) 2000 people trampled a Walmart worker to death to buy what? What exactly is worth killing another human being for? Toys? Sheets? Groceries? In my opinion they should have closed the doors behind them and hauled them all in for manslaughter at the very least. Not a very kind thought? Well, obviously these are not very kind people.

These are not starving Haitians whose five year old children weigh less than thirty pounds because they are sharing a handful of corn kernels between a grandmother and her grandchildren. These are people so psyched up by the media and their own ideas of what the holidays are about that they are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they deem necessary.

I, along with many others, get misty eyed over stories like The Gift of the Magi. I loved it when my children's elementary teachers refused to have a gift exchange. Instead they collected money and bought gifts to put under the tree at the mall for underprivileged children. Even this brings to mind how many so called underprivileged children's parents are the first in line for the free toys and bikes and games given out by churches and charities, and add them to the haul they get from everyone else. Then the real underprivileged children, whose parents cannot afford to get off work to stand in line still go without. I have a friend who remembers lining up in a holey sweater on Christmas Eve to get a free used coat from the Jesus Saves Mission when she was eight years old. That leaves me misty eyed.

This is not something new to me. I remember one year when my own children were still very young and willingly gave up some of their gifts so another family could have a Christmas. Other years we gave our kindly used toys away just before Christmas to make room for the new. Not exactly a heart wrenching thing to do when there was so much to go around. I doubt if my children even remember it. We were fortunate. We never lacked for anything, but we lived in a neighborhood where not having everything was unusual. Once one of my preteen children even asked why we were so poor one summer!

It is time to teach our children the value of true love while they are still ours to teach. No need to be mean or miserly, but it is just plain wrong to be greedy. Where the lines between these things are drawn is a personal decision, but I hope it falls far away from killing people for Christmas bargains.