Merry Christmas!!

Last year, I recall being somewhat philosophical about Christmas on my blog.  I spent a fair bit of time contemplating the meaning of Christmas.  It seems, in hindsight, that the year has flown by rather quickly because here we are again...and I still mean all of those things I wrote about.

But I have to admit that, although we're having a relaxing Christmas away from home this year, I haven't seemed to find much time to actually sit down and just think about this special day.  Hmmm.  Well, if truth be told, I have had time to sit down and think from time to time.  It's just that my thinking hasn't revolved as much about the birth of the Christ child as it has around two other children who I hope will be joining our family in the coming year.  Ah well...the good thing is that I am not limited in my thinking of Christ to certain times of the year!

Christmas is different than usual this year anyway.   Tonight, for Christmas Eve dinner, rather than any of the usual trappings that I love and comfortably associate with Christmas festivities, my family will be enjoying the famous chicken dinner at Knott's Berry Farm in California, after attending the afternoon services at Saddleback Church.  Tomorrow, Christmas Day, we will be participating in rides and Christmas day parades at Disneyland, along with my parents, and my sister and her family.  It will be a different kind of day, indeed, from what we are accustomed to, but hopefully a kind of day to remember for years to come.

Despite the uniqueness of this year's festivities, despite not really feeling the Christmas Eveness of today because it's just so different from other years, I still cannot forget that little baby born in a manger over two thousand years ago...the one that became my Saviour many years later.  For He alone is the reason for the occasion of Christmas, even if most of our world might say otherwise.  To the depths of my soul, I believe that that baby was the Messiah of this world who came to earth to be its saviour.

Yesterday, while at Seaworld with friends, we went to see the Shamu Christmas special at the end of the day (who knew that whales celebrate Christmas!), and I was surprised that Seaworld had a choir of people singing the traditional Christian Christmas carols to close the show.  As I closed my eyes and sang along to Joy to the World, Silent Night, and other carols, it felt like that was my Christmas Eve moment this year...the moment in which I could be thankful, just for a few minutes, for the God who loved me so much that he made this kind of celebration possible.

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas, whatever you are doing...may you find even a moment to reflect upon the reason for the season.

Many blessings from my home to yours!

Ruth.