My life may be somewhat sheltered these days, but it seems to me, doing away with holiday craziness makes my life much more enjoyable and certainly one of more quality. I hesitate to call it Christmas craziness because it has little to do with Christmas at all.
I doubt you'd find many standing in a check-out line that are glowing from the joy of giving gifts as a representation of Christ. You'll hear frustration, anger, fatigue and all kinds of words I wouldn't use on a Christian blog but not too many will be sharing the anticipation the three Wise Men had when they sought out the Messiah to present gifts.
Maybe it's easy for me to take this stand because I don't have children at home anymore. Maybe it took this many years for me to wise up, who knows.
I have a ceramic Nativity Scene made by my children's paternal Great-Grandmother. When my kids were younger, I would set it out and tell them the Christmas story. Then, our Grandchildren came along and we'd do the same thing. They like moving in the pieces in place, the Sheppard boy and his sheep, the camels, wise men. Now, we have grandchildren that were not even born the last time I sat in the floor and told the Christmas Story with the Nativity Scene!! Families moved too far away to be together and other life events got in the way. I got to thinking, the last Christmas I sat in the floor with the kids like that was in 1999!! Oh, my gosh!
So this year, I am pulling out the Nativity Scene and taking it with us when we finally get to see some of the grandkids Christmas afternoon. I'll dust it off and have it ready to go. Some of the pieces are damaged from the years of kids holding, loving and moving them into place. A few have lost hands, the angel has a broken wing and we won't even talk about the wise man that lost his head! It might take several adults to sit in the floor this year with two year old Jacob in the mix! I shudder to think what he could do to a camel.
Imagine how much it would mean to their Great-Great-grandmother Mary Hammer, to know all these years and generations later that the work of her hands shared the Reason for the Season with those babies! We should all have such a legacy to pass on! We can when we focus on Jesus and teach our families what Christmas really is all about.
Love and miss you, Grandma. Thank you for helping me share Jesus with the babies! See you in heaven!
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