Millions of people celebrate the birth of the Christ child on December 25th. And even those who don't celebrate him all agree that he has a tremendous impact on the whole world. Jim Bishop wrote in his column one Christmas morning something that I think puts everything in its proper perspective:

There was a man born of Jewish parents in an obscure village. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. And then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place from where he was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away from him. He was turned over to his enemies; he went through the mockery of a trial. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had - his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave. All the armies that have ever marched, all of the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all of the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as this one solitary life