I LOVE CHRISTMAS! The lights, the trees, the nativity scenes, the music....chocolate, laughter, parties, and even a little shopping! As the weather turns a little gloomy and the night comes earlier and earlier, the bright lights cheer me up. It is tradition that we drive around one night during the season to look at the decorated houses. We always go to downtown Chattanooga with some friends to look at the EPB windows and the Blue Cross windows with a stop a Starbucks in between. Christmas Eve we are at church, and Christmas day brings time with family and my mom's famous coconut cake.
Maybe it's because the year that we got married we almost didn't get a Christmas tree that now I have trees everywhere. Little ones, bigger ones, all special in their own way. The little wire tree on my kitchen table is colorful and bright. The tree in the front room is rigged to stand up since it is so old the stand broke. If there were a tree upstairs this year, it would have all the ornaments that tell the story of our life along with all the ornaments children have given to me over the years. The living room tree is formal, and the tree in our bedroom is actually in the way.
Next year I am going to simplify. Even though I love the trees, I struggle with the fact that I have way too many trees and some people don't have one at all. I went into two homes this Christmas where the young mom's couldn't afford a Christmas tree. It broke my heart. It made me stop to think about what Christmas really is about and what we have let it become.
Red and green, silver and gold, dreams of snow and mistletoe....carols by the fire, steaming cocoa, and sugar plums dancing in our heads.....Santas, snowmen, penquins, and polar bears....time with family and friends, candlelight services at church, the Nutcracker ballet...shopping and shopping and shopping!
My friend, I don't know who coined the phrase, but let's not forget, "Jesus IS the reason for the season." Honestly, in the last few weeks, in all the hurrying to get things done, worrying if I got everyone a gift they would like, trying to keep the house clean, I was blessed to receive a Christmas CD in the mail. The songs brought me back to center. My thoughts were refocused on Jesus, and the reason we celebrate this thing called Christmas. It's About the Cross. That song is on the CD I received, and it has spoken volumes to me. Christmas is the beginning of a beautiful love story. Jesus loved me enough to leave his throne in heaven, be born in a stable, laid in the straw, and grow up as a man to face brutal torture and death. Glory to God in the highest!
I am so thankful that we have this time of year. It forces us to think about giving. I love to give gifts (even though I get stressed out by the shopping). This year I had the honor of giving to a new friend. She is at a hard point in life and needed a little help. The smile on her face and the light in her eyes when she saw my meager offering for her family is still warming my heart today.
I think of the name given to our Lord, Emmanuel - God with us. In our Sunday morning Bible study we talked about that name. God right here with us implies a relationship. Relationship implies conversation, and then someone sent me a You Tube link about an eight month old deaf baby who, through a cochlear implant, was hearing his momma's voice for the first time. I watched it over and over. I wondered if that is how Jesus feels when I call his name. The look of wonder and awe on that baby's face keeps rerunning through my mind. It prompts me to call out "Jesus." I want the focus of my Christmas to be on WHY we celebrate, not what we DO to celebrate.
Next year there will be fewer trees at the Million home. Some of these will be given away to young mom's who won't be able to afford one. Sure, we will celebrate - REALLY CELEBRATE! Jesus IS the reason for the season, and this family has come together to agree to put the focus on Him.
Merry Christmas!
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