I have been watching the lights go up in our neighborhood since mid-November. My husband, Gary would likely have been one of those. But my thoughts are that I want to be thankful and enjoy the Thanksgiving season before we focus on Christmas. I realize that I may be in the minority but once I expressed this to Gary he was thoughtful, reflective and jumped on my bandwagon. He gets super excited about the decorations and the thought of putting lights up and decorating the tree gets him going. However, if it were just me, I don’t know that I would even have a tree or decorations. They are just not important to me. When my kids were little I did all the things that the world expected but I think that Jesus would be just fine if I didn’t put up a tree or lights on the house.
This year we are not even going to give physical gifts to the kids, just grandkids. This year our gift to our kids is going to be a gift to a charity in town in honor of them. We have been given much and as my parents always told me “MUCH IS REQUIRED OF ME”. They even said that when we were dirt poor. Now it has more meaning for me and I wish that I had given it more attention and action through the years. There is nothing physical that I need this Christmas as God has blessed us beyond measure.
What I do desire more than anything on this earth is a closer walk with my Jesus and to have clarity and wisdom in Him. I want to give more to those that have less than I do and to live up to my parents words of “MUCH IS REQURED OF ME”.
I don’t know how realistic it is to think that I can live up to that expectation but I sure want to. I want so much for Christmas to be about Jesus and how he came to this world as a child to save me and you from sin. To come to earth and die and rise again for me and for you.
I pray that each of us do not get so caught up in the spirit of what the world sees as “Happy Holidays” and miss the glory of “Merry Christmas”.