Thanks to my dear parents, our little tree doesnt look so lonely anymore!! I am not sure who the Crate & Barrel package is from, there was no return address, but I am assuming it is from an aunt and uncle that go for the pre-packaged gifts every year.
I am finally getting into the Christmas mood...now that my packages will be mailed out today and mom sent dads Christmas cookies. Zac is even getting into the spirit a bit now that we have gifts under..well.. next to our tree. This season has been a hard one, with everything I have ever associated Christmas with so far behind me... it is really making me start to think really what this whole Christmas schtick is all about.
Here in Vancouver, I dont have a roaring fireplace. I dont have the laughter and warmth of parents and in-laws. I dont have the dinners dad makes us. I dont have the stockings that are normally hung. I dont have the comfort of being 10 minutes away from either set of parents. Among other things....
So sitting here with my baby Christmas tree, with the thoughtful gifts my parents sent, I am beginning to wonder why we even bother celebrating Christmas anyways. Yes, I am a church going person, yes I believe in Jesus and the virgin birth. But why then, now that all I hold familiar is stripped away, why o why does it just feel like another day? Have I really not focused on the fact that Christmas is really the celebration of the good news that Heavenly Father sent us? I was pondering this thought yesterday. I suppose up until yesterday, the only way I ever really felt the Christmas spirit was through all those material things that kinda helped it along. It never once was really about Jesus. Until Yesterday.
And the thing is, is now that I contemplate it more, it is such a different feeling to have the Christmas Spirit in Christ than the former feeling I was looking for. It is more quiet, complacent, reverent. It is warming from the inside. It definetly isnt as hectic, as chaotic as the other kind of Christmas spirit... Having the spirit in Christ is, gosh I dont even know the words. I guess what I am trying to say is that finally realizing that Christmas stripped from its wrapping paper is pure love, well.. that is a miracle. That Our Lord sent his only son to save mankind, even thousands of years after His mortal death, from the mortal sins we create and posess, that we may progress to be as He was. That through Him we are saved from Satan and his wiles, that we are offered eternal life in His house, that we do have the chance to repent and be forgiven. What a loving God we have.
It sure makes Christmas seem alot more peaceful. Christmas in Vancouver may just be the best one I've had yet.
Lord I am so thankful for thy presence on this Earth. I am thankful that thou hast chosen us to share thy good news and that we might be saved. I ask Lord, this season to please bless those who need thy word, and also those of us who know it, to please impress it upon us once again and I say these things in the name of our dear savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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