I’ve been a little melancholy about Christmas lately….could even say a little bah humbug. I’ve thought a lot about why, because I usually love this time of year. Not the hustle and bustle, or the spending of our hard-earned money , just the decorations and the family togetherness moments. For some reason this year I’ve really felt like the spirit of Christmas was missing for me.
This last Sunday at church was the children’s play, and you know, to be honest, I was in such a bad mood, I didn’t want to go. I had even managed to cause everyone in my household look at me with that, “what’s your problem?” look. I work in the children’s ministry during Sunday service and have watched several of the children in my class prepare and get excited about this presentation for months. I love them, and pray for them, how could I not support them? How could I not want to go? I had to go, right?
I even knew that my mentality was under attack by the enemy, but I just didn’t have it in me to fight back. Being the type of woman , that gets out of bed, and Satan say’s “Oh, No, She’s awake” is the ultimate goal but I definitely was not her this day. In actuality, what I really wanted, was to hear a sermon…something that would help me to shift my focus out of my slump and back into my “God Consciousness”. Why was the children’s play today of all days? But there was no escaping….we were going, and even the fact that, I couldn’t find anything to wear wasn’t going to justify me not attending that service.
The title of the play was Christmas Hangups….should have told me something right there.
The characters in the play were Christmas ornaments. It began with the ornaments talking about their meaning to their owners. Some of them even thought that they were more “Christmassy” than others. “How could a Hawaiian Hula girl, or a cowboy be a Christmas ornament? Christmas ornaments were supposed to be Angels, Stars and Snowmen! Well as you can imagine, the comparisons, insults and arguing started. And then came Joseph, running in to “sshhh” them, as Baby Jesus was sleeping, and his wife had just gotten him to sleep! How funny to think of Baby Jesus this way, as a real baby. The tale cumulated with the story of Jesus, the fact that the manger decorations would be the center point of all the decorations, and how the “owners” of the decorations have a new a new life since finding Jesus. All the decorations, have special meaning to the “owners” but Jesus was the reason for their existence, you see without Jesus there would be no “other” decorations.
I have to say, it was the cutest play, I had forgotten all of my “grumpiness”, but I had remembered all the Christmas ornaments that were the there to remind me of special events and times of our life. I had remembered that the favorites, were also the most meaningful. The handmade ornaments that my grandmother made out of beads, when I was a child, the very first ornament the hubby and I received, from my mother, for our very first Christmas tree as a married couple, the ornaments that my Uncle Bill, who is no longer with us, had given my daughter, the immense amount of ornaments that my girls have received over the years, marking different milestones and phases of their lives, the precious handmade bead “icicle” ornaments that my mother had made one year, (just like my grandmother’s) as Christmas presents because that’s all they could afford and the irreplaceable handmade creations from my girls.
I had remembered how my life and the meaning of Christmas had changed for me and my family after finding Jesus. As a girl I always knew that Christmas was a celebration of the birth of Christ, but it was never a personal celebration. I didn’t realize that the Baby was not the only focus, it was also the Man, His life, and more importantly His mission, the reason He was sent here, to save the world., or, on a selfish note, to save me. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
I believe I have found the blessing of Christmas, and for this year, the reminder came through a children’s Christmas play. I was definitely blessed last Sunday, that Christmas play was so personal for me, I know I was suppossed to be there, in all of my grumpiness, you see, I didn’t know what I needed to snap out of it. But Jesus did!
I’m fully aware of His love and my “God Consciousness” is back.