Step into any retail store during this time, and you are bombarded by the all-too-familiar combination of red and green and by greedy bargain shoppers with blinders on for only the wish list in their hands. It's funny how the holiday spirit that everyone boasts so proudly about is only resonated on Christmas morning, itself, as unneeded things are unwrapped and stashed away. Any other day leading up to it, we are consumed by the stress of spending more money, clawing our ways through thick crowds and getting more gifts just for the sake of giving things away.

The holiday season is a blessing, but it has become a curse, a curse of greed, forgetfulness and selfishness. The irony of this is biting, for we kick it off by celebrating Thanksgiving, a holiday promoting graciousness that is pushed nonchalantly to the back of the junk drawer as we move onto Christmas, a holiday that seems as if it has been given an entirely different purpose. That's for another day, however.

There's such an innocent beauty about Thanksgiving. It's such a simple idea and one that is often pushed to the back burner as life takes on a more adamant form. There's something so unbelievably beautiful about being able to sit down with the families that God blessed us with, to forget about the world around us and the pressures of tomorrow. There's no pressure behind just being together and then sharing the laughter that speeding time steals away during translation. Heck, even if you're the one to mess up the turkey, it's a day where not even that matters (to a certain extent).

There are no coincidences in this life. Therefore, I believe that it is no coincidence that a holiday of thankfulness so closely precedes the holiday of Christ, himself, for the two directly go hand in hand. It is our purpose to love the people he allowed us to cross paths with, so it is no accident that a day was set aside for the sole purpose of loving one another without the distractions of life in the way. It was His will to have put us in our places with our people, so let it be His will to allow us a simple day of appreciating the people who He placed in our lives for the purpose of making one another better versions of ourselves in an ever-changing world.

So I challenge you to put down the cell phone, exit out of Amazon and to turn off the Christmas music in order to tune into the people who love you this Thanksgiving. Instead of spending Thanksgiving waiting in line to buy a gift for someone, how about giving that person a call instead and giving them your undivided attention. We are called to love through our actions, not through what we give a person for Christmas. Christmas can wait and so can its consumerism. I find it hard to believe that Christ would be too upset with us if we put His holiday aside for just a day to enjoy the people that he gave us. He doesn't pass us direct messages to tell us what it is we're supposed to do with our lives, but He gives us something even better. He passes us people.