The Dargan Boy asks: Does Christmas live in your heart?

Roy L. Smith, a Methodist minister, once suggested: "He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree."

I pondered the meaning of these words recently. I suspect each person reading this column could provide a few different remarks to Rev. Smith’s comment, so I might ask you this morning, "Does Christmas live in your heart?"

The world today seems in great flux. The headlines speak to us of wars, murders, thieves, crime, lies, drugs, violence and all sorts of questionable behaviors. So what should we do in the meantime?

Does Smith suggest that one’s heart is like a big house where that essence of love resides? But what if the heart’s home is vacant?

And what of love itself? Is it a love for your neighbor? A stranger? One who is hungry or sick? An enemy? Or only for those you like?

What of those who suffer?

Kahlil Gibran once said, "There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward." I’m wondering how many people embrace Gibran’s theory of kindness not only at Christmas but throughout the year.

More:Lessons from Kahlil Gibran, a prophet from Lebanon, still ring true today

When I go to visit a nursing home, I don’t often see many visitors there. Perhaps I go on the wrong day, and all the visitors just happened to stay home.

Whenever I see relatives who never visit other relatives until they reach the aisle of a church in a casket, I have to wonder about that love in one’s heart.

I wonder too if visiting the sick and lame are examples of the Christmas spirit in one’s heart, or if anyone ever goes to a hospital on Christmas Day.

Mother Teresa, the saint of the poor and suffering in Kolkata, India, so many years ago provided an example of a heart full of love as she embraced the poor, the ill and the dying — the lowest of the low.

Does one ever think of the suffering and hunger of others while dining around the Christmas table, where maybe an abundance of ham and turkey with fixin's are placed?

Mother Teresa once reminded earth’s people, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Is that sign found hanging on the front door of each heart’s home after Christmas?

Has the celebration of Christmas these days sacrificed those emotions and feelings of the heart’s love for that joy associated with lights, gifts, games and those material things that seem so cold when held in one’s hands?

I can still smell that fragrance of the cedar tree, handpicked from the woods, and sitting beautifully adorned in our small living room next to the kitchen during Christmas. The lights so bright, an appropriate garment, for this well-dressed visitor from the mountain woods.

And under that tree the gifts wrapped in pretty paper. I can still remember my first BB gun, my two-wheeled scooter with one handle (you better know how to balance this little beauty coming down a hill or else), and a pair of new jeans that I ruined sled-riding when I went through my grandfather Chalkie’s fence on an icy slope.

My Grandmother Gen was not very happy with me as jeans back then cost a lot of money for poor folk. Actually, they still do.

Most of the smiles at Christmas time at our house always included visits from friends and neighbors with some sampling of root beer, fruit cakes, stacks of sugar cookies and other sweets.

Christmas is a special time for sure, but I’ve come to realize that maybe the real spirit of Christmas in one’s heart is misplaced by the commercialism of buying, selling and wrapping gifts, and maybe does not include enough care and love for others.

And once Christmas Day is done, does that aspect of giving get tucked away, too, with those lights and adornments for next year, lying stale in some box in the basement or attic, while the heart loses interest until Christmas comes again?

A good pal of mine, Harold Clancy, with whom I served in Vietnam, died a few weeks ago in New York. He leaves behind a widow. What of a widow’s needs after a provider and loved one dies? Would Christmas or any day be a good time to render some help to our widows?

There are many individuals throughout the year that could use a little love and help, so may Mother Teresa's words find a place in your heart today: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

Merry Christmas from the Dargan Boy! Be joyful!

Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Is Christmas more about material things for you?