I brought out the Christmas decorations today. I am amazed how fast the time flies and how it seems as though I just put them away. The girls are a year older, and I have one more year of memories stored under my Santa hat as I decorate. As I listen to Christmas carols and think of what this last year has held, my tears match the stormy winds outside that blast sideways raindrops against the window. I missed so many Christmases and each one now is dear to me in its own way. As my thoughts go so often right now, I think of Grandpa and how this will likely be his last Christmas with us. My own dear grandpa, what will each holiday season bring without his home for all of us to gather in? His home is hardly beautiful by some standards and maybe a little random and eccentric (kind of like me I guess), and yet, it is the only home I’ve ever known my grandparents in and it holds an infinite amount of precious memories for me. Play times and nap times and story times and game times and dish times and picnic times and times of sorrow and times of joy. Grandma passed away within its walls, and likely Grandpa will too. And once that happens, it will forever change, as all things do. No matter how I pray and hold my breath and wish, they change. Someone else will live in that house and all the eclectic pieces of 1960’s décor will be taken down. The numerous wind chimes, pictures, clocks, piggy banks, coin collections and childhood art projects will be taken down and dispersed among our clan, never to be assembled together again. The sum total of physical possessions for two lives will pass to another generation. I am so thankful for treasure stored in heaven because many of their things have been destroyed by moth and rust and decay.
What will this Christmas hold for us? Will it truly be the time of joy and peace that it should be? I am resolved to ask the Lord daily to make it so for my family, and to help us all focus on the intangible things that truly embody Christmas; the ultimate gift that was given to mankind in the form of a tiny, helpless baby. That baby would grow to be fully God and fully man, dying to take away my guilt and shame and pay the price of the sins of the world. What a gift he has given us, and what better reason to celebrate his birth this year.
