Skip to main content

A Day to Remember

              But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:19)

 

            Throughout her life, Mary treasured up and pondered them in her heart. Mary didn’t get so wrapped up in giving birth and taking care of this newborn child that she didn’t bother to pay attention to what was happening around her. Of course, Mary wasn’t going through normal, everyday events.  The child to whom she’d given birth hadn’t been conceived in the normal way. Angels had told her He would be the Messiah. If unusual things were happening in your life, you might pay a little better attention to them. You might treasure them up and ponder them.

            Instead, we’re just nobodies, and it’s next Monday is just another in a long line of Christmases followed a week later by just another New Year’s Eve. You have basically the same meal planned, with the guestlist and the same list of people who won’t be there. Even though pictures might be taken, there won’t really be memories of this Christmas. At best, they’re a few memories of Christmas played over and over, sort of like Ground Hog’s Day.

            So the questions for us to consider include

1)    What sort of memories would I like this Christmas to include for me and everyone else?

2)    What can I do toward that end?

            The problem is that life is what happens while you’re making other plans. It’s not as if you can choreograph or script the day and have everyone move and say just as you wish. But, what do you want to remember? What do you want them to remember. If it is the food, then focus your energy there. If it’s the gifts, then that’s what you should spend time and effort on (though I doubt they’ll remember how you gift-wrapped the gifts, unless you pull off some major – and probably irritating – job. If it’s Christ’s birthday, then make that the centerpiece of the day. You don’t have to be pushy about any of these.

            And as important as food, gifts, and the reason for the season are – and they are – the two ideas that come to my mind as I bounce all these around like ping pong balls, is that the thing that will most likely be remembered involves the development of relationships between those present and God and between those present with each other. What someone is likely to remember is the sense of being loved and – possibly – of giving love. And while we might think that loving others is an impromptu, natural thing, it’s often not any more natural than any other gift. It’s easy to love some people, but kick it up a notch to make it memorable. For others, it may take a lot of thought, and maybe asking some questions to figure out how to do it, but that’s likely to make a holiday memorable – especially if there’s something tangible (a note, a small gift) to go with it as a reminder of that person’s value to you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more