christmas is here again...

i've seriously lost my sense of time this time around. it feels like yesterday that i was still in ntu, starting work at deloitte, deciding to quit ntu and then starting school again. it all seems like one huge blur. and even when december came, it still failed to register, as evidenced when sarah had to bring to my attention on monday that christmas was just one week away while i was under the illusion that it was some time in the middle of next week. well, as the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun.

christmas... what is it all about? church? christmas carols? christmas trees? parties? presents? you could say all of them, but there's so much more. watching the nativity story on tuesday reinforced that notion. there's so much more to the jesus story. what i love about movies like this is that it shows us the implications that might not be so obvious. mary's faith to say yes to being the mother of christ is always mentioned, but it takes a slightly more insightful mind to recognize the immense courage it took for a 16 year old girl, just betrothed, to be with child out of wedlock. and the humbling a man of joseph's reputation and stature it took when he obeyed the angel to take mary as his wife in her state. and yes, the baby jesus being born in a lowly manger that marked the start of a story that has had such widespread ramifications even till today.

so, what is this whole story all about? the answer is simple. gift. about being a gift to the people around you. the giving not of a physical gift but of oneself. in other words, loving the ones whom you hold dear.

merry christmas everyone.