Some thoughts to ponder about Christmas –
Even though I am smack-dab in the middle of what could be the “Christmas rush,” there have been great moments of encouraging people this year for which I am very grateful for. This past weekend I was reminded how special individuals are who have entered my life when things were going well for me and when things were not going so well.
I have a Christmas story that I would like to share with you that reminds me each year what the season is really about and not what commercial’s and commerce have told us it is!
Many years ago I left an abusive relationship right before Christmas. I had no job, no money, and a 8 year old daughter to try to feed, clothe, and provide emotional support to. I was depressed, hopeless and uncertain of my future.
My leaving my abuser left me with nothing as I walked out the door with nothing – my choice. Had a suitcase of clothes for me and a suitcase of clothes for my daughter. I did not want anything material from that house or relationship that reminded me of the trauma I had experienced. The result was that I moved into an apartment with no furniture and no food and no money to provide for my daughter and myself.
It was noticed by a neighbor in the apartment down from me that I had no tree, no Christmas decorations, and nothing in my apartment. So she gave me some extra Christmas lights, four candles, and a strand of gold and silver holiday garland. I went into collecting from garbage cans some bottles and plastics that I turned in for money and collected $10.00. With that money I bought popcorn, a 24 inch Christmas tree with little decorated “boxes” already on it, and a couple apples.
My eight year old daughter and I decorated our little place and Christmas eve sat down to eat our dinner of popcorn and apples with candle light, looked at the little Christmas Tree sitting on the mantle of the fireplace which we decorated with the garland and strand of donated lights. Christmas music was playing on the radio while we enjoyed our “feast.”
I was focused on the fact that I had no gifts for my daughter and I had no real “tree” for her to enjoy, and that I had no turkey in the oven or other food for Christmas. I was focused on what I didn’t have rather than what I had. So I said to her, “I am so sorry that I have nothing to give you this Christmas but I promise next Christmas will be better.” This wise eight year old little girl replied, “Mom. I don’t need to have presents because I have the best present ever – you. I am so happy we are safe and together. I am so happy that it is quiet and peaceful. I love you mom and being with you here in this home is my present. This is the best Christmas ever because we love each other and don’t have to worry about being hurt anymore.”
I had been reminded of what Christmas is about – love! Unconditional love for each other and an eight year old had to remind me. I needed to remember that a baby was born years ago, in a manger, with no bed, no tree lit with lights, no fancy food. THE ENTIRE human race had a place, and the baby Messiah about to be born on earth had none. He found no room among men. He found no room in Plato, none in Aristotle, but in a manger, among beasts of burden and brute animals, and among the simple, too, and the innocent. For that reason, it says in the Gospel: “The foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” – but He had the gift of love surrounding Him as my six year old and I had surrounding us. The miracle of love is what Christmas is about. I won’t ever forget that Christmas and what it meant to me and to my daughter.
CHRISTMAS has really become a hopeless muddle of confusion. The humility and the poverty of the stable are somehow confused with the wealth and indulgence and selfishness of gift giving. The quietness of Bethlehem is mingled with the din of shopping malls and freeway traffic. The soberness of the Incarnation is somehow mixed with the drunkenness of this season. Blinking colored lights somehow have some connection to the star of Bethlehem.
John F. MacArthur Jr., “The Incarnation of the Triune God”
REJOICE, you who feel that you are lost; your Savior comes to seek and save you. Be of good cheer, you who are in prison, for he comes to set you free.
You who are famished and ready to die, rejoice that he has consecrated for you a Bethlehem, a house of bread, and he has come to be the Bread of Life to your souls. Rejoice, O sinners everywhere, for the restorer of the castaways, the Savior of the fallen, is born.
C. H. Spurgeon, “Joy Born at Bethlehem”
HE CHOSE a time of utmost peace as the time when he would be born, because this was the reason for his being born in the world, that he might lead the human race back to the gifts of heavenly peace. He, as a kind mediator and reconciler, has made one house of God of angels and humanity. Bede the Venerable, Homilies on the Gospels
Christmas is, for the time being, a feast of light juxtaposed with darkness. We brighten our sanctuary with candles, but the night persists beyond these walls. Though we wipe our tears away to join in the yuletide celebration, we are still a people who mourn.
Katherine E. Willis Perchey, “A Feast Juxtaposed”
In remembering that Christmas so many years ago, the love that my little girl knew as the true meaning of Christmas, left me speechless and full of emotion. That Christmas miracle of love is repeated through memory each year at this time of year. I am so blessed to have a God who loves me and a daughter that is a “miracle” and gift to me. Dark times I experienced are only for a moment, but the joy of love is eternal.
May the Christmas miracle of love leave you speechless and blessed.
