Getting older means many things to me. Most of them are physical issues that impede my ability to function the same way I did in my younger days. Some are mental issues, like not being able to multitask anymore, or having a memory that's hard to recall or even remember certain events anymore. Now that my husband and I are older, our only daughter is married and gone. She's not only gone, but gone far away. Her husband is in the Army and they live in Texas right now, so spending holidays together is limited.
When my daughter was living with us, the Christmas holidays were a lot more fun. I think that old saying, 'Christmas is for kids', just might be true. I have to say that I do enjoy giving gifts more than getting them. I wish I had the knack for it like my mother used to have. No matter who you were, when you walked through her door for her annual open house Christmas party, you left with a gift that she bought just for you. It was always 'exactly the thing you had wanted'. I was always amazed at that. Even when I moved out of the house and didn't really see her that much, I'd go to her Christmas party and when I opened my gift, it was always 'just what I really wanted'.
I'll be leaving for Texas tomorrow, without my dear husband. He's got poison ivy all over his face and other places I won't mention, but he's also 'on call' for work so he can't come with me. But I'll be spending Christmas with my daughter and her husband and that will be very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing her. It's actually a surprise. Her husband didn't want me to tell her I was coming, so she thinks neither of us are coming for Christmas. I hope it'll be a pleasant surprise. I'm sure it will.
As I was making out Christmas cards this year, even though I determined not to do it because I 'just didn't feel like it', I came across a poem I put into my cards a few years ago that someone wrote about how they went through their Christmas list and remembered people they hadn't seen for a long time. It's a cute poem, but this year I wanted to convey my own heart in a poem, so I wrote one for my cards.
Once again it’s Christmas time with all its ritual,
I find the chores more tiresome and I get cynical.
Ornaments, the Christmas tree, lights and all the cards,
But when I begin to decorate, it doesn’t seem so hard.
I remember folks I haven’t seen at all throughout the year,
So I share a wish and pen a word to make them feel more near.
Then memories of times gone by come alive within my mind,
And a smile comes upon my face, as the card I finally sign.
So don’t think because our paths don’t cross and time has slipped away,
You’re not forgotten or left behind, just missed more everyday.
‘Cause Christmas helps recall those thoughts that bring things into view,
That show a precious gift God’s given, of knowing someone like you.
I put it in my cards and when I started all the normal Christmas things, like decorating, putting up the tree, sending out the cards, I began 'feeling' a little more like Christmas. It made me realize that maybe we've all brought our children up the wrong way because we've been brought up the wrong way regarding Christmas.
Christmas 'has' turned into a commercial business. The feelings we get of that 'so-called' Christmas spirit is simply just that, feelings! When we see the Christmas lights, and put up our trees, decorate our houses, send cards and buy presents for everyone....that's when the feeling comes.
Why doesn't it come because it's celebrating the birth of God's Son, Jesus? God, Himself, came down to earth in the form of man, born of a 'virgin', so that He could experience all we go through, without committing any sin, so He could then be the perfect sacrifice (Easter) for our imperfect lives. He came as a tiny baby! He entrusted His life to humans! He humbled Himself to our laws, our ways, in submission as an example for all of us on how to live. Then He was brutally murdered on a cross for nothing!
But He did it willingly. He did it for all of us. He would've done it for each and every one of us, singularly, if needed, but it wasn't. He willingly died for all of us so all we'd have to do is 'ask, believing, and then receive' the free gift of salvation so we wouldn't have to go to an eternal home of Hell, heat and torment. That's what Christmas is really all about. Why don't we teach that emphatically? Because it's not 'fun'. Because it wouldn't bring about any profit for a couple of months.
Instead, many people, who don't even share the Christian belief of Jesus, go out each and every year, fight crowds and traffic to buy gifts that don't mean anything and spend money they can't afford, and for what? Just because it's Christmas and everyone else does it? Because if our kids don't have any presents, they'll feel left out? So we can stress ourselves out, spend time with people we don't even really want to be around so we can say we did it? I often wonder why they do it. If I weren't a Christian and didn't even believe in Jesus, I wouldn't do any of it. I don't understand why people do this to themselves, except for one reason......"we all, like sheep, have gone astray... Isaiah 53:6". The Bible calls us sheep. Because that's what sheep do....follow! And we are! We follow what others do whether we really believe it or not.
Let's stop being sheep. Let's look at what we're really doing to ourselves and our children. What are we teaching them by our examples. Yes, fun and magic have their places, but not shadowing out the true meaning of the one and only Creator who loved us so much that "He gave His one and only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him, will have life everlasting". Let's step out, be different and teach that!
No comments:
Post a Comment