Tuesday, December 20, 2005
CHRISTMASES REMEMBERED....(TWO)
We are to the part of the year that it is either “do or die” time. Mailings will not get there now…..time to relax and go with the flow. Almost everyone in our family is employed and in serious occupations…… and like many of you, Christmas is sandwiched in with everything else. When you have children, their school programs and activities vie for time and there is the shopping, the wrapping, mailing, baking, candy making, decorating the house inside and out, the cards…….at one point you wonder if any of it will be finished on time. Then a wonderful thing happens.
We are all much like the Grinch who steals Christmas. We are so wound up with all the “stuff” that many of us don‘t see what we‘re missing until it‘s too late. The opportunities to share, help others, give of our time, go the extra mile…..those other things steal away the time like a dastardly villain, not that they are bad but because we didn’t plan ahead well enough. In the midst of chaos, in the middle of being the busiest, at the most inopportune time is when God likes to surprise us with some of his best gifts.
It happened that way one cold night when the inns were full and there was no room for the little child who brought the light. It happened to me today. I was remembering how my mother was always so excited about Christmas….she would talk with fondness about how her dad would come to the door of the upstairs and call, “Christmas gift” as six sleepy children tumbled out of bed and dashed down stairs to the tree in the living room.
Mom enjoyed baking and making candies to take around the neighborhood and for friends and family. At our house, Christmas always meant congregating in the kitchen and watching mom make her goodies. The movement of her hands were mesmerizing as she worked the dough. Her rolling pin had one handle missing. She couldn’t remember which one of us broke it playing in her cupboards as little toddlers. She never thought to get another…..it did the job very nicely and was the only one she ever used her whole life through. I still have hers and I still have the one she bought me when I married in 1950 as a young girl. Both have seen families come and go as they did the work of the cook.
As the Grinch’s heart began to grow, he was suddenly filled with uncontrollable enthusiasm to give………to give everything he had. He raced madly down the mountain to do just that. I didn’t really have the time but somehow, this morning instead of writing my usual blog I decided I must “bake and take.” I could almost see my mother smiling as she sat by the table to watch my inspired actions. Christmas is really a “work of heart”…….and my heart was in the right place.
“It was the best of times….and the worst of times”…..but Christ came, “just in time.” His evidence is everywhere but never closer than when I pick up that old broken rolling pin…….
Essentially Esther
We are all much like the Grinch who steals Christmas. We are so wound up with all the “stuff” that many of us don‘t see what we‘re missing until it‘s too late. The opportunities to share, help others, give of our time, go the extra mile…..those other things steal away the time like a dastardly villain, not that they are bad but because we didn’t plan ahead well enough. In the midst of chaos, in the middle of being the busiest, at the most inopportune time is when God likes to surprise us with some of his best gifts.
It happened that way one cold night when the inns were full and there was no room for the little child who brought the light. It happened to me today. I was remembering how my mother was always so excited about Christmas….she would talk with fondness about how her dad would come to the door of the upstairs and call, “Christmas gift” as six sleepy children tumbled out of bed and dashed down stairs to the tree in the living room.
Mom enjoyed baking and making candies to take around the neighborhood and for friends and family. At our house, Christmas always meant congregating in the kitchen and watching mom make her goodies. The movement of her hands were mesmerizing as she worked the dough. Her rolling pin had one handle missing. She couldn’t remember which one of us broke it playing in her cupboards as little toddlers. She never thought to get another…..it did the job very nicely and was the only one she ever used her whole life through. I still have hers and I still have the one she bought me when I married in 1950 as a young girl. Both have seen families come and go as they did the work of the cook.
As the Grinch’s heart began to grow, he was suddenly filled with uncontrollable enthusiasm to give………to give everything he had. He raced madly down the mountain to do just that. I didn’t really have the time but somehow, this morning instead of writing my usual blog I decided I must “bake and take.” I could almost see my mother smiling as she sat by the table to watch my inspired actions. Christmas is really a “work of heart”…….and my heart was in the right place.
“It was the best of times….and the worst of times”…..but Christ came, “just in time.” His evidence is everywhere but never closer than when I pick up that old broken rolling pin…….
Essentially Esther
