December 12, 2009
Greetings My Friend,
It is December already, Christmas is around the corner. As I wrote about Christmas last year, I thought about how Jesus was born. He was born in a stable, laid in a manger which is a feeding trough for the animals. He was born to very poor parents and his mother was a teenager. Even now I have that Wow feeling. Then I like to ponder…..Jesus was a baby, he needed his diapers changed, he needed to be fed, and eventually he needed to be toilet trained. The Lord and Savior of our lives came to poor parents, to a teenage mother, and was a baby who needed to be loved, cared for. Another Wow!
I remember when my children were young; I wanted to create a Christmas like the ones on TV. I set myself up to fail. I wanted to bake, to have wonderful aromas wafting through our house. I wanted to have a picture perfect tree, each and EVERY year. It did not help that I had two very different children. My daughter loved tiny little things. My son loved giant things. We never could settle on the Right Christmas tree. Decorating the tree was impossible. When the kids were little, they put all the decorations in One spot and the rest of the tree was bare.
As an adult, the first few years after our divorce were hard. How do we celebrate? Many years Junior and I celebrated holidays on our own. We tried to pick different dates to celebrate, like the week before or after. Junior’s daughter soon settled into a holiday tradition with us. That was nice; we spent Christmas day at her place. Junior and Amy love to watch “A Christmas story.” My husband can watch that program over and over and he will laugh each and every time. I think I watch it just to watch as Junior gets all tickled. My son and his family had started to celebrate Christmas Eve day with us.
We are in Virginia now. We will learn some new ways to celebrate again. My sister has already included us with all their celebrations that they have. We will also need to figure out how we will do MI.
The years we learned to celebrate holidays on our own have taught me much. It is about Jesus. We always go to church – that will not change. It helps us to focus on Jesus – the real reason for the season. If I don’t have Jesus in the right spot in my heart….well the holiday then is not real.
I have also learned it is not the picture perfect house, the amount of presents under the Christmas tree; it is not the wonderful aroma of baked goods. What makes Christmas so special to me now is Jesus came into our SIN filled world. He came to teach us how much God the Father loves us. In love, well, for me when I finally figured out that I am loved, I have so much more calmness, courage and I feel like I truly matter. I have also learned that Jesus came as a baby, he grew into a man and ultimately died for me, my sins (anyone who will accept this gift).
As I close, I’d like to ask you…..Do you love Jesus. Have you met Him, invited Him to live in your heart? Is it time……
May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.
Love
Janet
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