the spiritvirginiaruthDecember 20 2004, 08:38:32 UTC
Here's what I think about the Christmas spirit.
It's not this magical mode you can snap into just because certain dates on the calendar happen to be coming around. When we were kids, it used to be (at least for me), but now that we're older, we realize that life happens no matter what month it is. People we love suffer... pets die... families are stressful. Two years ago I had a HORRIBLE Christmas. It was then that I started to figure out that Christmas doesn't always have to be this warm happy glowing time. Of course we want it to be... I want it to be, and I'm very grateful for years like this year when it is. But I've been trying more and more to remember that the important thing about Christmas is this: the Lord of the universe cared so much about us that he left the glory of heaven to shiver in the cold in a room full of smelly animals. He left perfection, a place of eternal joy and unimaginable beauty, and came to a place where people get sick and die, where parents get cranky, where people we trusted to love us instead horribly wound us. You don't have to feel a warm glow in your heart when you think about this: Christmas to me is about remembering and giving thanks. Everything else is just a bonus :-)
It's not this magical mode you can snap into just because certain dates on the calendar happen to be coming around. When we were kids, it used to be (at least for me), but now that we're older, we realize that life happens no matter what month it is. People we love suffer... pets die... families are stressful. Two years ago I had a HORRIBLE Christmas. It was then that I started to figure out that Christmas doesn't always have to be this warm happy glowing time. Of course we want it to be... I want it to be, and I'm very grateful for years like this year when it is. But I've been trying more and more to remember that the important thing about Christmas is this: the Lord of the universe cared so much about us that he left the glory of heaven to shiver in the cold in a room full of smelly animals. He left perfection, a place of eternal joy and unimaginable beauty, and came to a place where people get sick and die, where parents get cranky, where people we trusted to love us instead horribly wound us. You don't have to feel a warm glow in your heart when you think about this: Christmas to me is about remembering and giving thanks. Everything else is just a bonus :-)
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