At the time, Colin Wood was a 30-year-old financial services worker who beat out 50 other people at an Internet auction site for the privilege of renting out a decommissioned nuclear bunker in Essex, just east of London. Wood paid $430 to spend two weeks alone behind blast proof doors and 10-foot thick concrete during the Christmas season. While there, his diet consisted of Spam, baked beans and tap water.
The owner of the bunker, Michael Parrish, commented about Wood, "He certainly seems to be a little bit disillusioned with Christmas.''
But after only four days, he was extremely lonely, and Colin decided that Christmas with the family wouldn't be so bad after all. When he emerged from the bunker on Christmas Eve, he said his plan was to go find his dad and spend Christmas with his family.
Sometimes we might have the same feelings as did Colin Wood. Christmas sometimes gets to be a little too much. Some years it feels as though it starts way too early and goes on forever. We get so tired of the commercialism, and our hearts ache when we realize that most people in the world have completely forgotten what Christmas is really about.
One woman, exhausted from Christmas shopping, stepped into a crowded department store elevator with her packages. With a weary voice, she said to no one in particular, "Whoever started this Christmas thing should be shot." Her words were met with complete silence. Then from the back of the elevator, someone quietly said, "Ma'am, I believe they crucified Him."
Does this not say to us that perhaps --just perhaps--the ways that we observe the birth of our Savior need to be examined and scrutinized? This year, we don't have to escape Christmas--let's just observe it the way it was intended: with worship and adoration of the Christ.
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com