Remember the reason for the season!
Even though it is a cliche’ it rings true! Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I find myself getting lost in the shopping, baking, parties, decorating, and wrapping. I love buying gifts for those special to me! I take alot of time perusing ads and catalogs, shopping online, and making a shopping plan so that I can make sure I get the best gift for the appropriate person. HOWEVER….
All the trimmings of the season tend to blind me at times to the real reason we celebrate Christmas. As a result, we have had to become very deliberate to spend some time focusing on THE reason for the season. Two things that we do:
1. We take an evening with our kids and sit down, turn off lights, light candles, and reflect on our tree. This is the story we use…the ornaments represent the gifts we give each other, the lights on our tree represent the heavenly hosts that hearalded the birth of the baby Jesus, the evergreen tree represents eternal life that we now have through Jesus, the gifts under the tree represent the gifts that the wisemen brought to Jesus, and last but not least- our tree is topped with a star that has Jesus on it! This has become a family tradition that focuses us all back on Jesus and His birthday.
2. We made a commitment a few years back to attend Christmas Eve services at our church. Even though at times it is inconvenient or we just do not want to go out, we have found that attending Christmas Eve services has again focused us back on Jesus!
Jesus is the reason for the season! Merry Christmas to you all!
Laura
