Christmas never fails to evoke memories. Most of us all can recall Christmases of great joy and of disappointment, of warm camaraderie and frightening loneliness.
I can remember a Christmas over 50 years ago (isn’t it funny how memory works-I can remember 50 years ago but sometimes I forget what happened weeks ago!) We had moved to Visalia California that fall. With a year old baby and a new job, we looked forward to the future. My folks had come down to spend Christmas with us. I had to work late on Christmas eve. When I got home, there was my family, parents, wife and baby all having a good time by the fire in the living room. That three days was one of the happiest Christmases I can remember.
On the other hand, many years later, after a divorce ,I was living by myself but dating a wonderful girl . We hadn’t been dating long and one evening she said to me that she was
going to her parents for Christmas, and at that stage it didn’t seem appropriate for me to come along. Of course I understood, we didn’t really know each other that well and to go to her parents for Christmas I knew was a little early (I rationalized). My parents were half a continent away and I had no brothers and sisters to spend the holiday with. So there I was in my apartment along–never having been alone at Christmas before. I was disappointed and very lonely . Right then and there I vowed to never be alone a Christmas again!!
So as we approach Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I hope you make wonderful memories of this time of year. That you go to church to celebrate the coming of the Christ Child.. That you tell the people that mean the most to you that you love them.
After all what is Christmas but love.? God’s love for his creation, to send his son Jesus Christ into the world to love us and to show us how to love others, to forgive us for our sins and to die on a cross so that we might be in communion with God. And most of all that he was resurrected and conquered death so that we might have eternal life.
What is there to celebrate this Christmas season? The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but not just at Christmas, but each and every day of the year. Amen.
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