Today as I look at the colored lights on our Christmas tree and listen to Silent Night my heart moves back in time to about 65 years ago! It is Christmas morning on the farm in Nebraska! Snow and cold outside! We had an illuminated clock in our bedroom where me and my little brother Tommy slept this Christmas night! I would watch the clock all night long! With every hour that had passed I wondered if Santa Claus has come? About every hour I would peek out our bedroom door down the hall for I could see the Christmas tree! Nothing yet? Mom told me unless I stop beating up my little brother Tommy Santa was not going to bring me any gifts! Had I crossed the line? I have stopped beating up Tommy for a long time in fact it seems like forever! Yesterday Tommy told me he did not like me! I told him I did not like him but Santa Claus might be listening so I am not going to say anything! We went to the small Methodist Church for Christmas Eve in Pilger. At the end of the service we the kids got bags of candy, fruit, peanuts and other goodies! We had to sing in the children’s choir so we had to work for food! Yes me and Tommy were there for the sweets! Then all the good food my grandmother prepared for the Christmas dinners over the years! The excitement of family being together around the same table! No outside distractions like today through mobile devices! Nothing coming from the outside could influence away from family and church! No competing voices challenging our Faith! Any divisions towards Christ were not there! We believed everyone must love Jesus! We prayed in our public school! We recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning before classes began! A United States Flag was in every classroom and a map of the United States was in every classroom! We had a Christmas play every year and sang patriotic songs in our music class everyday! God Bless America was on our lips everyday! We heard no dissenting voices of division and hate! Our Pastor’s were esteemed and supported! We viewed their authority over the state but yet supported the state! Family, school, church were the Trinity of our unity! These three were in agreement with each other and bonded us together as one people! We were protected with a father in every home! Even though poor we were secure! Neighbors helped each other! We never considered ourselves in our community as enemies of each other! Why? Unity yes but forgiveness ruled the day! Christianity held the culture together because forgiveness reigned at this time in our history! As a culture drifts away from Christ vengeance replaces forgiveness! Then everyone views themselves as enemies of each other and vengeance is executed with shootings and other violence! This problem is not about guns it is about the forgiveness of God that is not woven into our culture where as Christians we forgive each other because God has forgiven us! Christmas is about forgiveness as Christ came to die for our sin! Then we can live for him in the Spirit of forgiveness towards each other!! Be sensitive to those as you are out shopping sensitive to those suffering from unforgiveness! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com