I always have a tinge of regret when Christmas skips out the door for another year. I enjoy the season so very much. The decorating is such fun and I just bought the most perfect tree this year.  A dear friend of mine talked me into making Christmas cookies again and then was kind enough to come over and assist with the baking and decorating of these treats. I am overjoyed that two out of three children got to spend some of the holiday with me. I do believe that my gifts were appreciated and I know I loved the gifts I received. All in all it was a great Christmas. Just one problem. It ended.

I usually leave the decorations up for a bit but I couldn’t do so this year because my son is only home this week. I needed him to help me take some of them down and then help me put all of the containers up in the attic. We got most of it done last night. I wanted to cry. My home no longer looks like a winter wonderland, it looks like a barren desert.

Not only did I have to clean up Christmas early but I also heard that Somalia banned Christmas celebrations.  The reason why they did so was because most of the country was Muslim. At least that is what the first news report said. I could not believe it! How dare they ban Christmas!

This morning as I was preparing to write about this issue I did a bit more research and learned that the ban had already been reversed. Whew! They didn’t have a problem with Christmas, the report said, they just didn’t want any violence to be visited upon the Christians. At least that is what the latest news report said. Kind of makes me think that the Somalian government had every intention of being a Grinch until they got world pressure and then they decided to claim that their heart grew and really all they wanted to do in the first place was protect Christians. (Yeah, sure)

I am not a judge of motivation. Only God can judge that but I am glad that Somalia decided to reverse their decision. To be a Christian and a minority in a country is hard enough without having your special holiday outlawed.

I wish Christmas was every day and, in effect, for a Christian it can be every day, because we have the assurance of God’s love through Christ residing in our hearts. I feel sorry for the Muslims. They have their celebrations but there is no way they can have the comfort of the Holy Spirit if they do not have Christ in their hearts.