The 58th Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve, 2006. Tomorrow will mark the 58th Christmas that I’ve witnessed (although I must say that I certainly can’t remember them all). A lot has changed since the 1949 Christmas in my hometown. Of course I don’t recall it since I was only two months old. I would imagine, however, that my older brothers had a good time, got some presents, and we probably went to some relatives for Christmas dinner.
Our son and his family were here for a couple of days. Our granddaughter is cute as ever (of course they are!!) and we are grateful for that family and pleased that our daughter in law chose to be part of our family (and we theirs). We had my brother and sister over last night for cards and games. We opened gifts this evening as well.
We will host my brother and sis tomorrow for lunch (ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, etc) and an afternoon of visiting and good times. Then clean up and a couple of days with one or two of the girls before our time is ended and we get a week off.
All in all, a traditional, ordinary holiday for us. But there’s something special about the traditional and ordinary that makes it anything but that. We cherish and relish these times, possibly because they tend to jolt us back, after dealing daily with a crazy and wild world, to what is truly important in our lives…family, relationships, love, and acceptance.
I’m not a doom and gloom prophet. There is good in this world, and I know that our Creator said it was good when He finished His work. But this is also a fallen creation groaning and longing for release from bondage. We need this jolt…this shot…this time of tradition and custom…to bring us some sanity, sense, and purpose as we go into yet another new year seemingly filled with disarray, confusion, insanity, grief, and hate.
And as we in Christendom ponder the miracle of the life and purpose of a baby born in a barn some two thousand years ago in the Bethlehem area of what is now the West Bank, we recall the promise of perfect peace and long for its hastening.