…Soon it will be Christmas day…goes the song. Follow on to last week’s Nugget.
How will you celebrate the day this year? Will it be just be business as usual? Lights up right after Thanksgiving, tree up early in December, drag out and dust off all the ornaments, shop til you drop for aunt Sue and cousin Jim and can’t forget ol’ Whazzername. Amazon driver knows you by your first name. Santa’s on his way Turkeys, dressing, cranberry sauces, pecan pie, candied sweet potatoes, yadayadayada. Business as usual.
One of my favorite Christmas stories took place two years after the first ‘Christmas’ when the Magi came to pay homage to baby Jesus. Valuable gifts to a poor child…gifts which likely paid for His family’s sudden unexpected trip to Egypt. The Kings were warned in a dream not to return to wicked King Herod, but to go home a different way.
How about you, would you consider going home a different way this year? Step outside your comfort zone. Broaden your vision and resolve to share some of what you have with others who would gladly trade places with you… not only at Christmas time, but on all the Mondays and Tuesdays…forever.
Can you find a church in your area who feeds the homeless and needy where you can go on Christmas Day to help out. How about a soup kitchen in your community where you can go share some Christmas spirit with a hungry soul. Is there a family in your area you’d be willing to adopt for Christmas and bless them with gifts and food? Is there a lonely homebound person whom nobody kisses any more who would love a warm Christmas dessert and perhaps some carols sung and memories shared? Is there a widow or a nursing home or an orphan whom you might bless in the spirit of Jesus’ birth?
If you have little ones in your home, would you bake a birthday cake for Jesus and read them the Luke 2 passage telling of Jesus’ birth? Put up a Christmas creche with your children and explain the significance of each piece.
Bake cookies and get some family and friends and go visit some local families with Christmas carols and a tupper ware full of your cookies…
You get the idea. Go home a different way this year. Bless others as well as yourselves. Be more about Givin’ this year.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Will you let Time Make a Change in YOU this Christmas. This is not a dress rehearsal. Make a difference to someone else this year.
