Stories and Thoughts About Christmas

Christmas is such a great time of the year. It is my favorite season. Although there are always bad things and bad people doing bad things all the year long, Christmas is the one time of the year where you can actually see and even hear, in the news media, the good that is going on in the world. It just seems to bring out the best in people.

I love hockey. I played it when I was much younger, of course. My friends and I would play on any pond that was frozen over, but it wasn't always the smoothest surface to skate on. Back then, it seemed like the Michigan winters were colder and lasted much longer then they do now. We were given permission to make an ice rink in our backyard. With the help of our fathers, we put together a very nice rink. The surface was smooth and fast and we had some great memories of hockey games and playing in the Stanley Cup finals. A few broken windows and some bumps and bruises, but we had many happy stories and memories of Christmas from those days gone by.

There are many stories and thoughts about Christmas that go around, but there is one that I heard about that I have to share with all of you. A Christmas inspirational thought from someone that you might not expect.

War is an ugly truth that we live in today. Of all the years that man has lived on God's green earth, we have only had 300 years of peace. Only 300 years that someone wasn't mad at someone else.

This Christmas inspirational thought is about a man named Michael Reagan. Mike served his country in the Vietnam war. Their are many scares that have been dug into Mike's mind and emotions from that war. But God has gifted him with an artistic ability to draw portraits of people.

It all started when Mike did a portrait for actor Van Johnson, who was performing at a theater in Seattle Washington. Mr. Johnson was so overwhelmed by the portrait, that Mike was doing drawings of all the celebrities that performed at the theater. Sixty-two to be exact over a five year span.

Michael Reagan has done portraits for presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon and Bush. Celebrities Bob Hope, and George Burns, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, and just about all the inductees into the NFL's Football Hall of Fame. He is an internationally recognized portrait artist. Many of the over 10,000 portraits that he has done, some 1500 portraits of celebrities, have been donated to charities. He has raised over ten million dollars for those charities.

But Michael Reagan is doing something different today. He has been doing portraits of those men and women, who have sacrificed their lives on the alter of freedom, and he has been giving them to the families of those fallen soldiers, to have as a memorial. He does it for free. He does it from his heart.

His pencil drawings of these fallen heroes are like photographs. The detail is incredible. Mike says that he always starts all his drawings with the eyes. The entrance into the heart of a person's soul are thorough the eyes, and as he draws them, he says that those fallen soldiers are there with him, and they help him to complete the drawings. He draws with much compassion and respect for these soldiers and their families, and many times the emotion of it all brings him to tears.

Michael said, that his experience in Vietnam deadened his feelings and emotions. The drawings of these soldiers and the gift of giving them to the families, has made his emotion's and feelings alive again.

I think Michael Reagan has found the true meaning of Christmas. It was always hidden in his heart. Now he has found it and lives to give it away to others. How about you? Have you found the true meaning of Christmas? Take some time this Christmas season and look deep inside your heart. It's there. You may have to look around a bit, but it's there. Keep looking. You'll find it, and then give it away to someone who is hurting and in need.

Learn the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas.