Working on a sermon for Christmas Eve titled Christmas Is ...
How would you fill out the sentence? I need responses for this to work, so you need to read and respond for a change.
To me, Christmas is ...
Remembering. I can't go into a Christmas without remembering the wheres, the hows, the whens and most importantly the whos. I don't remember many gifts, but I remember the gift-givers and what they did to get the gifts that meant so much.
Christmas is ...
Recurring. It's interesting to see the grand kids respond the way the children did and the way I once did. It is without question a cycle, this Christmas thing.
Christmas is ...
Giving. I'm going to tell the story of the first time I was given money to shop by myself. The amount I don't remember. The gifts I barely have remembrance. But what I remember is going through Kress Department Store and the smells of perfume and the joys of a new pair of socks or whatever it might have been. It was about giving, and I was allowed to participate for the first time in the joy of buying so that I might give. It was unforgettable.
Christmas is ...
Lights. Cameras (talk about photos?). First "stereos" and first records to go with those stereos. I was 14 when that wonderful wood stereo came to me. The first album was Glen Campbell's By The Time I Get to Phoenix. First 45s were Snoopy and the Red Baron and the Monkeys Daydream Believer. Played them, and the ones to come until they were barren and skipped.
Christmas is ...
Sneaking out of the bedroom through the window, letting myself down carefully to the ground, taking Mamas keys to the trunk of the car and opening the trunk and playing with the football inside (by myself, at night).
Christmas is ...
Mama looking all over town for a chemistry set and finding only a used one. I loved it, though no instructions came with it and I might well have blown us all up.
Christmas is ...
YOUR TURN
2 comments:
Home. Doesn’t matter if you are at home or away from home or if you now have a home of your own. You think of home. And at home I remember: Joy. I can still see the joy in my Mom’s face as Christmas was the one of the few times during the year that she could get her children to church. I didn’t understand that joy.… until now. I can still see the Joy on my parent’s face on Christmas morning as my brother and I tore into our gifts of plenty. The joy of giving. I can see the Joy on my parent’s face as we sat down to our Christmas dinner; Mom’s joy for a table full of food and family and my Dad’s well, I think it was just about the great meal he was about to receive. The joy of caring. The joy on my Mom’s face as reminded us about the true meaning of Christmas. The joy surrounding the birth of our Savior.
Also family and friends that make life worth while.
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