December 23, 2021
Finding Christmas…
I’ve been musing about the holidays since before Thanksgiving happened. When I found out that my last sibling was moving out of state and taking my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew with him. I have three younger brothers. However, two of them have been living out of state for so long, it would be a shock if they ever moved back.
But my last brother has been here so long it was a shock when they announced that they were moving. All of a sudden, all my holiday traditions were flying out the window and I had no way of grabbing them back. Especially Christmas. Seemed I had to go on a search. A Finding Christmas search… And that made me very sad.
I’ve been thinking that I have no long-standing traditions…at least when it comes to Christmas. For half of my adult life, I worked in retail, so Christmas was a madhouse. And for the other half, I never created any consistent, concrete holiday traditions.
And now that it’s me and my parents left in the state, I’ve been wondering what do I want to do during the holidays. I mean why am I even celebrating Christmas. Yes, I am truly grateful for God coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. I can’t even begin to understand the extraordinary gift having a personal relationship with the God of all creation means to me.
But outside of that extraordinary gift, why am I celebrating Christmas? What’s the big deal? For our family, Thanksgiving is the holiday with the traditions and the huge family gatherings, not Christmas. I was so done that I had concluded that I didn’t need to celebrate Christmas at all.
But my heart wasn’t satisfied with that answer. So, I started watching and learning about other people’s traditions. Watching a score of Hallmark holiday specials. Listening to the music and came to one simple conclusion. Christmas, at its core, is about love.
The love of the King and Kings and Lord of Lords towards us all. That he came in the form of a baby, lived a sinless life, died on a cross, rose again to everlasting glory. Thereby paying our penalty so we could have a direct, intimate, relationship with Him. That’s love.
Love of family and friends coming together. Celebrating one another. With full abandon. That’s Love.
Caring for your fellow man. Seeing to their needs, thinking about others before yourself. That’s Love.
At the end of the day, Christmas is about Love…and I had forgotten that. I’m grateful for the reminder and I’m excited with this new rekindling for the Love of Christmas to see where next I’ll go.
So, here’s my Christmas wish to you all. To be full to overflowing with love. To share your overflow with your family, friends, and every life you touch, each moment of every day.
You never know who you may meet, that the only love they’ll receive is from you today. Go out there and drench your world with love. If we all do that, then finally, we’ll start changing the world for good.
So here’s to finding Christmas! May you have a blessed and Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
Until next time ~
Pearl W. Filani
