What Christmas is about can be said in two words.
Love triumphs.
The story of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate, is about that very simple message.
Loving is better than hating.
Hate destroys. Love builds.
Hate divides. Love unites.
Hate produces enemies out of friends. Love produces friends out of enemies.
Hate arouses suspicion. Love offers forgiveness.
Jesus came to say, “There is a better way to live. You really don’t understand what it is that God expects of you. Here, let me try to explain it to you.”
Love your enemies.
Understand the spirit, not just the letter, of the law.
Forgive those who have done you wrong.
Don’t judge other people’s motives.
Show mercy in dealing with others.
Treat people the way you would like to be treated.

The essence of life, Jesus said, can be explained in one sentence: “Love God with all your heart and mind and soul, and love others as much as you love yourself.”

It is a message so simple yet so difficult to put into practice. Most of the people in Jesus’s own day didn’t get it. Nor have most of us since.

The message has been so distorted over the years by apostles of wrath and judgment, of hellfire and damnation, that many people have either missed the central point of Christianity altogether or have turned their backs on it.

Yet, along the way, the vision that Jesus set forth has continued to set the standard for how we should live. For two thousand years his words and deeds, his teachings, have been the conscience of the world. They have breathed new life into dead spirits.

His message has persevered because of devoted believers and in spite of misguided ones. It has persevered because it is true.

Even in a world where so much evil, so much meanness, so much selfishness seems prevalent, we are constantly reminded by unselfish acts of kindness and love that the essence of living life to its fullest is to understand that simple message.

Love triumphs.

Especially at Christmas time – when we are more generous, more compassionate, more forgiving, more sentimental, more spiritual – we catch a glimpse of the great truth that can radically change our own lives, and the entire world.

Love triumphs.

From Glenn Dromgoole’s new book, The Christmas Spirit: A Celebration in Word and Song, available at Texas Star Trading Company in downtown Abilene.