The miracle of a white Christmas has appeared in the upper Midwest. As a matter of fact, it seems the blessings of snow run down to the Bible belt portion of our region, meaning school-age children are ecstatically building snow forts while their parents search the ‘Net for driving tips.
Christmas Eve is a good time to hang up the hang-ups along with the stockings, and to declare peace on earth, good will towards all creatures. If you didn’t get the last of your shopping done, try to think beyond the power of the dollar and consider the power of the spirit. Write a few of your thoughts down for a loved one, and gift them with your sentiment, your love, and your wish for their fulfillment. It’s Christmas – give from the heart.
I woke up early today to get the annual 18-hour roast into the oven. I put some bread-making ingredients in the bread machine, set the table, and polished the flatware for this evening’s extended-family meal. Tomorrow we have a second meal for the blood relatives, another feast of one another’s company.
Christmas heralds in the season of people-to-people, and after the busy months of bidding farewell to milder temperatures and preparing for the holiday push, this time to be together, face-to-face and unavoidably aware of each other, is winter’s gift. The hoopla of the holidays only lasts for a few more days, then we hunker down, reach out and pull in cherished people, and we do our winter duties of rejuvenating our souls and our friendships.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. The Barn and The Peg read the Christmas story to us each year from Luke, before we opened a single gift from under the tree. It’s not that we appreciated delaying the things that we believed held more promise, because we didn’t. We only wanted to know which of the five of us The Barn would assign to play Santa Claus, and if we could get all the unwrapping done before bedtime, so as not to delay the real Santa from making his stop. I always hoped just one year they would forget to drag out the Bible and read the dang story, but it never, ever happened.
Once the story got going, it was quite wonderful to hear the picture it painted. Poor little baby Jesus, in the cold of an uncomfortable stable. As the story unfolded, we learned of his doting and trusting parents, and the answer he brought to a world in search of peace. The Barn and The Peg knew that the gift of that story would see us through the cold and uncomfortable stops in our lives, and that there would be meaning for us in our lessons as we searched to regain our peace.
I hope everyone enjoys the smells, the sounds, the hugs, the tastes, the togetherness, and The Gift – our baby Christ child, here to make a way to peace for us.
Merry Christmas!
Copyright © Kari E.O. Burns December 2005
1 comment:
Very nice! Ann
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