Christmas Musings

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In about ninety minutes, Christmas Eve will arrive quietly in this neighborhood. I’m at mom’s, in a rural area outside a small town in Alabama, an area normally so still that you can hear the jet of a hot air balloon passing overhead. No planes or trains, even the semis create only a distant echo.

We’ve already opened our gifts and caught up on all the family gossip. The longer I stay away from the family hometown (about 90 miles SE of here), the more I lose memories of who people are. My mom no longer puts up a tree, just a few decorations. Tomorrow, we will go do church, celebrate The Birthday, then just enjoy our time together.

Rachel, on the other hand, is at a wild party, spending the holiday at a Victorian 150 miles north, with three families and a gazillion kids. Tomorrow and Monday will be filled with thrilled squeals and a blizzard of torn wrapping paper and ribbons.

Monday afternoon, we will come back together to recover…me from the driving and her from the exhausting excitement.

Some folks have thought it odd that we spend the holiday apart. Obviously, I don’t. Rachel loves those folks, and they give her what I cannot – a celebration to remember. I, on the other hand, recognize that my time with my mother is growing shorter each year. I don’t see her much and I want to cherish each moment.

Life is uncertain; we all know there are few guarantees. The last couple of months have been extraordinarily eventful, and those I love have lost precious folks; some are struggling with that even as I write. So surrounding ourselves with those we adore, to hold them close, is one of the few things we can do for ourselves and our families. Something never ever to take for granted, no matter what age or stage of life we are.

Which brings me back to the promise of the one true Christmas. Of all the things Christ brought back into our world, one was an overwhelming, overarching love…a love to hold but also to share. And share again.

I dearly hope each and every one of you are sharing love today, tonight, and in the future.

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