I've been thinking about "Christmas" (not that surprising since it's December 22nd!)But I guess what I've really been thinking about is the way I think about Christmas. I've been wondering... "How would I celebrate the arrival of God's Son to earth for the salvation of mankind if I wasn't surrounded by all the other stuff we call "Christmas"? I don't even want to call it Christmas right now because the word "Christmas" has so many other meanings than just the birth of Christ.
When I hear the word or say the word "Christmas", I rarely focus much on the meaning of what actually happened that night in Bethlehem. It usually means the birth of Christ PLUS food, friends, gifts, decorations, lights, etc. And when you're the mom those words mean more than just what they mean at first glance:
"Food" actually means extra grocery shopping and last minute dashes to the store for that one ingredient you forgot and then the extra cooking.
"Friends" means planning get-togethers, deciding on the food, buying the food, cooking the food, cleaning the house, cleaning the kids, enjoying the fun, and then cleaning up again.
"Gifts" means making a list of everyone you "should" buy for, trying to remember something they said they would like to have or come up with something on your own that you think they would like to have and then second-guessing yourself for at least a week wondering if you are right about it because you want to give a gift they will actually like and use, driving through all that "holiday" traffic, wandering around the mall with your mind going in circles, picking up and putting back 7 things before you decide you'll just take whatever is in your hand because you just realized you are running out of time and can't spend all your time on one gift, getting up at the crack of dawn at least once to make a Toys R Us run, standing in "holiday" lines at the register, "hiding" gifts in all kinds of places (and then finding one of those gifts 2 months later in some strange place that you forgot about!), buying wrapping paper and tape and bows and tissue paper and then standing at the dining room table for hours wrapping, receiving that one gift you have to pretend to love all the while wishing they hadn't wasted their money on that because in all honesty you know you'll never use it, etc. (BUT "Gifts" also means getting to see the looks on the faces of those you love and for whom you did get that "perfect" gift and then you forget all about the agony you went through to get to this point.)
"Decorations" means decoratING. It means making sure everything is cleaned up and just right before you begin and then climbing that rickety ladder up into the attic, trying not to fall off that same ladder as you bring down box after box of decorations, opening the boxes, seeing things you had forgotten about and smiling, trying to remember where you put "this thing" last year, taking down the "regular" decorations and putting them away to make room for the "Christmas" decorations, decorating the tree, hanging the wreaths, and all the while thinking, "I'm just going to take all this stuff down and have to put it back up in the attic in a few weeks!" And then cleaning up the new mess you made unpacking all that stuff.
"Lights" means spending at least an hour untangling all those tree lights and another hour trying to get all of them to work at the same time, putting up the lights on the outside of the house (in other words, watching and worrying and "directing" as your 13-year-old climbs around on the roof!), and (the good part) driving around as a family looking at other people's lights and decorations.
Is THIS what "celebrating" means?
I know my musings sound terribly "grinch-like", and there are many "good" things about the way we celebrate "Christmas". It's just that I personally spend WAY more time doing the things I don't enjoy and that won't last and that don't really remind me of the real meaning of what I am supposed to be celebrating than I do simply celebrating the birth of my Savior and enjoying and sharing the important and lasting things with the ones I love. And from what I have been hearing (more this year than ever before), most of my friends feel the same way.
So... back to my original question: "How would I celebrate the arrival of God's Son to earth for the salvation of mankind if I wasn't surrounded by all the other "stuff" we call Christmas?" If I could remove all the exterior "stuff" that I equate with celebrating Christmas, how would I celebrate God's ultimate gift of LOVE to me? - the night MY savior, God Himself in human form arrived as a little baby and set into motion the plan God had from before time began to save ME from my own sin? It's so crazy for me to think that God Himself, the Creator of all things - from a single-celled amoeba to literally billions of entire galaxies - MY Creator, would humble Himself to be born as a lowly human for the purpose of dying for me! I cannot even fathom that type of love... and that is what "Christmas" is really all about. It's about LOVE! It's about a kind of love that makes me cry just trying to get my mind around it. It's the love that made a way for me to know God. (I can KNOW GOD? that sounds so impossible - and yet it's unfathomably true - how amazing is this?!) And it is my Savior's birth (the one I am supposed to be celebrating) that made a way for me to know Him. The beauty is that He didn't have to come. It would have been totally fair for me to just die guilty and be separated from Him forever, but my Savior came... because He loves me - there's no other reason than that.
In all of my thinking and pondering, I guess my question comes down to this: How do I "celebrate" LOVE? Because ultimately that is what I am celebrating - a love that is beyond my comprehension. My conclusion? by "showing" love.
I can only celebrate love by showing love.
So, that is how I will celebrate. And I will celebrate it all year long - this isn't just a "Christmas" thing. God's love for me isn't just for this time of year and neither is mine for Him. I know that I must DO more loving of people. Not "must" in the obligatory sense, but "must" in the "I love God so much I just can't help myself" sense. I will deliberately seek ways to show love to others - that's how I will celebrate.
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