Christmas Reminiscing
I really like some of the thoughts/reflections that my wife and her cousin/grandmother shared recently related to Christmas (very recent and also very distant):
Elsa (my wife):
Christmas is still here...and peace
“It's the day after Christmas and still it continues as time with family brings that holiday cheer that is longed for despite the busyness of preparation. I have stopped for a moment to feed a tiny babe and in so doing realized that peace is here. All the joys of the holiday have come with laughter, sleeping in, eating good food, feeling the warmth of a cozy house and enjoying conversations with grandparents that will leave deep and long lasting memories of who Jesus is and why he came and why it was essential that he come as a babe to a virgin. It was even a surprise to enjoy a breakfast pizza around a table discussion/devotional time where Grandpa used pizza pieces to share a visual layout of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and the three objects within the Ark that foretold of Jesus' coming. Sometimes you just can't predict how a tradition will be made but after this year, I cannot imagine celebrating the day after Christmas without a breakfast pizza.
Traditions seem to be what make Christmas and other holidays so meaningful beyond the very essential parts of what is being celebrated. My grandma, who sends emails containing the events of her day and also memories of her life, recently shared some of the traditions they had when her children were young. My cousin, Becca, shared one of grandma's emails on her blog for Christmas (see below). I love her thoughts on Grandma's story. Oh, to stop at nothing to get to Christ. We may rush and get distracted in the preparations like Martha but to stop at nothing to sit and hear the message of Life like Mary, is what we can come to when Christmas arrives.
So, peace has come and I am reminded that it is what we celebrate that matters. I find rest in that and joy and hope that it (Life) will be the shining light that leads the year ahead.”
Becca/Grandmother’s story:
the christmas road
“My grandma sends a devotional email to her family almost every day. Recently she wrote about another Christmas memory:
Merry Christmas, dear family. We had a little coating of snow last night. Reminds me of years ago when snow was always expected and accepted at Christmas. Dad and Ed H. would plow roads through the fields where the snow wasn't so deep in order that we could worship on Christmas at Immanuel. Think of all the fences they had to cut and then repair later.
Just picture that! New roads just for Christmas! Plowed through farm fields three miles away.
I love the community picture this paints, neighbors working together all going to a white steeple church in Southern Minnesota to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. Weather didn't stop them...they busted up fences on the way. What a glorious example they were to their children, getting them to church, raising them in the faith, believing with might that God is indeed with us.
Haste! Haste! To bring him praise!
The babe, the son of Mary.”
Elsa (my wife):
Christmas is still here...and peace
“It's the day after Christmas and still it continues as time with family brings that holiday cheer that is longed for despite the busyness of preparation. I have stopped for a moment to feed a tiny babe and in so doing realized that peace is here. All the joys of the holiday have come with laughter, sleeping in, eating good food, feeling the warmth of a cozy house and enjoying conversations with grandparents that will leave deep and long lasting memories of who Jesus is and why he came and why it was essential that he come as a babe to a virgin. It was even a surprise to enjoy a breakfast pizza around a table discussion/devotional time where Grandpa used pizza pieces to share a visual layout of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and the three objects within the Ark that foretold of Jesus' coming. Sometimes you just can't predict how a tradition will be made but after this year, I cannot imagine celebrating the day after Christmas without a breakfast pizza.
Traditions seem to be what make Christmas and other holidays so meaningful beyond the very essential parts of what is being celebrated. My grandma, who sends emails containing the events of her day and also memories of her life, recently shared some of the traditions they had when her children were young. My cousin, Becca, shared one of grandma's emails on her blog for Christmas (see below). I love her thoughts on Grandma's story. Oh, to stop at nothing to get to Christ. We may rush and get distracted in the preparations like Martha but to stop at nothing to sit and hear the message of Life like Mary, is what we can come to when Christmas arrives.
So, peace has come and I am reminded that it is what we celebrate that matters. I find rest in that and joy and hope that it (Life) will be the shining light that leads the year ahead.”
Becca/Grandmother’s story:
the christmas road
“My grandma sends a devotional email to her family almost every day. Recently she wrote about another Christmas memory:
Merry Christmas, dear family. We had a little coating of snow last night. Reminds me of years ago when snow was always expected and accepted at Christmas. Dad and Ed H. would plow roads through the fields where the snow wasn't so deep in order that we could worship on Christmas at Immanuel. Think of all the fences they had to cut and then repair later.
Just picture that! New roads just for Christmas! Plowed through farm fields three miles away.
I love the community picture this paints, neighbors working together all going to a white steeple church in Southern Minnesota to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. Weather didn't stop them...they busted up fences on the way. What a glorious example they were to their children, getting them to church, raising them in the faith, believing with might that God is indeed with us.
Haste! Haste! To bring him praise!
The babe, the son of Mary.”
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