Christmas Stays!
In many
ways I think Christmas this past year came just in the nick of time –
just when we needed it the most. I love Christmas. I find more delight
in it now than when I was a child. Well, it’s more wonderful when
you catch on to the fact that it’s less about Santa Clause and more
about God. But there is a shifting of its responsibility. Christmas becomes
a responsibility for adults. There is a factoring of costs, of time, of
choices and trying to match your news letter with the more lively news
letters of friends. And then there is the matter of packing up after its
jollities have ended. The only difference between my dining room table
and a waste basket is the cup of hot coffee somewhere in the stack of
addresses and red and green ribbons and left over boxes of cards which
I plan to use next year and the listing of overdue thank you notes and
six birthday cards I enjoyed so much I couldn’t throw away so I
tucked them with their June dates in with the pictures that came with
this season’s cards. I know it’s bad housekeeping and my fault,
but there they are just the same. Christmas doesn’t pack up itself
with the leftover blackeyed peas for New Year’s. Christmas stays!
And well it should, hallelujah and praise the Lord!!! The existence of
God precedes time. His involvement with our time is nothing but a love
gift from Him, Who holds all time in His hand. Christmas has no past tense!
Its grace is fresh this day. There is a possibility that my dining room
table will resume its usual readiness for its every-day purpose and that
I will identify all the pictures that came in Christmas cards and that
I will find out who gave e the crystal bird filled with red beads and
I will use the red ribbons for Valentine’s, but Christmas, itself
with all its true meaning will still add meaning and solace and joy to
every day. Christmas is grace for August, Christmas is joy for September,
Christmas validates the celebration of New Year! For this very day in
your life and mine, God became flesh and – wonder of wonders –
dwelt among – US!!! The manger is empty, but hallelujah, so is the
tomb!!! Celebrate!!! God loves you – today!
Excerpt from
"Jeannette Clift George, From Center Stage"
