Christmas with the Family

With September 1^st comes excitement over cooler weather, hot spiced cider, and blowing brightly colored leaves.  Underlying all the reasons for fall exuberance, though, is the event that has colored my world since I was a child.  Cold weather means Christmas is on the way!

 

None of that has changed since I was a young girl.  What has changed however is the dark cloud that can accompany December 1^st.  Steve puts on his tender face and his armor and battens down the hatches.  Because he is about to be assaulted, beaten back, and challenged by the full range of emotions that are available to me as a female…sometimes many within only minutes!

 

Because, you see, my Christmas will never be the same as it was when my children were small.  There are two reasons for this.  Most important, they had the courage to grow up and go about their own lives, as it should be.  Second, even my Christmas as it was when they were small is not the Christmas I see in my mind’s eye.  I remember the quiet, peaceful couple of hours on Christmas Eve night but not the several frantic hours that day wrapping, cooking, stressing, and fuming.  I remember the sweet smiles but not the squabbling.  I remember the snow…once or twice.

 

Don't we all idealize the holidays?  A Thanksgiving table groaning with food and  a happy Norman Rockwell family beaming at one another.  Children dressed so perfectly and behaving so well that we know they left their rooms spotless.  Little ones running and playing, smiling and sharing.  Don’t get me wrong.  It happens…and, when it does, it is wonderful.  But as we get older, we never remember the work and the peacemaking required.

 

This year, as I eased my way into late fall, I began to pray earnestly that God would manage our holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I told Him I would do my best to completely turn it over to Him, letting Him take care of the plans and the details.  The only mood swings I’ve had, small glitches really, have been when I tried to take it back over and run it for Him.  

 

The “why” I’ll write about when I can find the right words.  But, I’ll tell you the result right now.  This Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons have been among the best I’ve ever had.  My level of joy and peace has been consistent, high, and humbling.  My Father has given me increased faith and grace to see things by a new perspective.  I can’t wait to tell you about it!

I'll Be Home for Christmas

No other Christmas song brings on bittersweet nostalgia and longing like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”  It is often sung as a romantic ballad; but in my opinion only Josh Groban's recording has captured the reality of the 1943 song, as written from the perspective of a soldier serving overseas during World War II. 

 

My Pandora station can’t decide whether to thumbs up or thumbs down this song.  It feels like pure Christmas but, depending on my mood, it can pull me down to the depths.  And I realized, listening to it today, how very many groups of people it affects in so many different ways.  Listen and consider…

• The small children who think it’s a nice-enough song but don’t quite understand why it seems to make everyone so sad.
• The high school student who is just happy to be among family and friends and thinks the song is a fine song.
• The college student or young person away from home for the first time and either eagerly waiting for that flight home or yearning to be there.  They will find on arriving the beginning of that phenomenon that will follow them for the rest of their lives, especially if they are believers.  Everything may be exactly the same, but the feeling is not what they are anticipating.  It feels somehow homey and alien all at the same time.  They will realize that “home” is something they can no longer grasp.
• The young parents who listen with a strange mixture of contentment that, at last he’s singing about my own home; longing for a parent they cannot be with; or guilt for not making the trek to be there.
• The middle-aged parents with kids who are older and parents who come to their home instead.  This is the best one and you parents who are at this stage, relax and enjoy!  These are the good old days and things do not have to be perfect. 
• The empty nest parents whose kids are experiencing that strange feeling upon coming home that things are not as they remembered.  The parents who, for the first time, cannot for one reason or another be with their children.  (This group should probably just avoid the song altogether.)
• Those members of our armed forces serving who cannot be with their families.  For them, the longing is very real.
• Those who are 66.  I can speak concerning this group.  Because we can begin to imagine being at the throne of King Jesus on His birthday.  Suddenly all the other groups and concerns fade into the background and we begin to grasp perspective.
• Those who have lost loved ones who are believers during the past year.  May I encourage you with how God blessed me the Christmas after I lost my mom in October?  Instead of my “wishing her back here” with me, He encouraged me to picture her there.  I realized that she would be there in time for rehearsals for the Messiah.  Then it dawned on me that Handel might be directing it and that King Jesus Himself might be in the congregation!

So take comfort, encouragement, and excitement in this…those of you with loved ones who have gone before you, they are truly Home for the holidays!  Rejoice!  

2 Corinthians 5:5-8
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.