The Holiday Crash

Well, the holidays have now come to an end. I know many people hate this time of year . . . the hustle & bustle of buying gifts for loved ones while pleasantly humming Yuletide jingles is over, the merriment that inspires us to wave at our neighbors & greet complete strangers with a jovial "Merry Christmas" is past, & the twinkling lights & shiny decorations that we have "oooh"-ed & "aaah"-ed over are being placed back into Tupperware containers & stored in the back of the attic until next year.

I can identify with the sadness -- it seems like months of shopping, wrapping, decorating, & baking were gone in a moment. But then I looked deeper . . .

It was never about the shopping . . . or the wrapping . . . or the decorating . . . or the baking. It was & still is about the birth of our Savior.

As for myself & my family, we had 2 wonderful opportunities to regain our focus this year. The 1st was at our church. Our church observes Advent & our family was asked to light the "Christ candle" at the Christmas Eve service. Now, growing up in a conservative Baptist church, I had never really been familiar with Advent, nor did I have any knowledge about the Advent wreath. So I did some homework, and now I pass my education on to you. The evergreens in the circular pattern represent the immortality of the soul, the eternality of God, & the eternal life Christ offers. Each of the four candles represents 1,000 years, totaling 4,000 years which is the time span from Adam & Eve until Christ. And then I came to the significance of the white Christ candle. And for me, it was an awe-inspiring "lightbulb moment" (to borrow a phrase from Oprah). Christ is the "light of the world" . . . the light that came to a very dark world . . . "long lay the world in sin & error pining." In the past, I have been guilty of sitting through the Christmas Eve service thinking, "I hope she got me the right size sweater" or "I wonder what's in that really big box under the tree" or even "I hope he's not offended when I ask for the receipt." But this year, as the four of us walked down that center aisle with "O Come, All Ye Faithful" being sung by our congregation, I was forced to think about what Christmas truly means to me & what it should mean to all of us. And I came to the realization that the true "joy" of Christmas is something that I carry with me every day -- not just during the holiday season when it is politically correct to celebrate Xmas.

The 2nd opportunity to regain my focus came in the form of my children . . . particularly my two-year-old. She is now at the age where total strangers will approach her in the store & ask her what she wants Santa to bring her this year. Now, for those of you who play out the whole Santa charade . . . more power to you -- have a wonderful time! However, it is important to me that Caleigh knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday & that her family gives her gifts because they love her & because we are following the example God set for us by giving His most precious gift . . . His Son. I want that to be important to her . . . and in wanting that to be important to her, it became important to me.

On a lighter note . . . our girls had a wonderful Christmas. Jason & I thoroughly enjoyed watching our girls' faces light up with delight as they opened their gifts. Granted, some of our own glee faded as we brought out a fully-wrapped rocking horse with all manner of pomp & circumstance -- you know -- "I wonder what could be in here?" "Wow, this present is really heavy!" And before it even touched the ground, Caleigh very matter-of-factly stated, "It's a horsey." How did she know??