Tis the Season…

I’m still wrapping my mind around the fact that December is upon us.  I’m working on the not so quick transition between Thanksgiving and Christmas in our home.  As I put away the Fall, and dig through the many totes of Christmas decorations, I find myself nostalgic.  It happens every year.  Looking at the ornaments from Christmas past.  Crafts our kids made while growing…..  It really gives me a sense of length and width of the life we’ve lived thus far.  Now, we have kids moved out and moving on…  Life is so good.  Time is so fast.  I love that this time of year gives me the reminder to slow down, and always enjoy the moments we have.  

Christmas is something I never want to rush through.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love it, because it is a holiday that is not about ourselves, and all about The One we celebrate.  It’s about and our family and friends.  It’s a about strangers and guests, it’s about giving and celebrating.  It’s about memories and traditions.

This time of year God came to us in the form of a baby.  Helpless.  The God of the Universe wrapped in cloths and put in a manger.  Imagine.  As I set up my Nativity, I think about how that night would’ve been for passer-byers, for the inn keeper, for Joseph, for Mary…knowing that the Son would be born among the sheep and cows.  In the hay.  Thus starts the season of giving. God gave, and so we pass on the Gift.  Christmas is Love in action.

Christmas in our family has always been so much more than the parties, the songs, the stories and the commercialism, it is about a baby.

One of our favorite traditions is putting our Baby into the manger on Eve.  Each year, as our children grew up, they took turns, as the Hubs read Luke 2:1-20, at putting Jesus into His place in the trough.  The story never changed and even though they knew it by heart, they vied for their place next to Dad and to know who would place Jesus in his baby manger.  Eagerly, each trying to remember who had the honor the year before, and who it passed to the current year.  It was always interesting to me, that even as older teens, they sat, with anticipation, listening to the Story.  Quiet, filled with expectancy.. as if it were the first time, hearing it…..and somehow, it always seemed that it was…..The story was always fresh, unique and awe-inspiring….just the way it should be.  It’s a fun story to share when people come into our home around the holiday, and ask, “where is your Jesus?” as they look at the bare manger.  I hope it’s these traditions that will continue to be passed on as our kids have their own families, but more-so I pray that they always pass on the Reason that is Christmas.  The Truth of that Baby.  The certainty of that night.  The perfection that was born in a manger as a gift from the Most High.  Emmanuel.  

~The spirit of Christmas needs to superseded by the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The spirit of Christmas is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The spirit of Christmas is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person. That makes all the difference in the world. -Stuart Briscoe