I’ve always been the first one up in our house for Christmas morning. As best I remember, it was true in my family of origin also.
I’m always unsure when to start decorating, but if I have a choice, it’s probably earlier than later. For the last 3 years we have left our tree up all year long, just to avoid the discussion and the work of taking it down and putting it back up.
All of our effort at Christmas time centers around that one event, Christmas morning, when we wake up to see what the mythical being called Santa Claus has brought us. If we are honest, all of that stress and scurrying around and planning and spending is barely worth it on Christmas morning when the event and the excitement is over in less than an hour.
As I look back on church and religion, I kind of feel the same way. All of our planning and preparation and spending money to create an experience, similar to what we do at Christmas. Then the service happens, and it is emotional or moving, and then it’s over. Most people admit the high is gone before Monday.
We live right next door to the church. Last night we watched people who braved the single digit temperatures to go to Christmas Eve service for that experience, and some of them will be out again for the Sunday morning Christmas service. Service, hoping for a double dose that will last a little longer.
I’m not criticizing those people, they can do whatever they want. All I can tell you is about my experience.
This year the holidays have been a little different. We celebrated Thanksgiving on a different day than normal. We celebrated Christmas with one of our daughters while the other was fighting illness. And today we will have lunch with my mother-in-law and her dogs.
We will have a phone call today with my son because he is in Taiwan and we haven’t seen him for a few years in person.
The holiday experience for us was sort of drawn out over a longer period of time, and much more serene. It was not centered around a single event and we certainly didn’t go to a church service.
For us, this holiday season brought some deep healing. Laura and I are writing a book and we have talked more than probably than any other holiday season ever. There was no big event, and we weren’t waiting for a mythical creature to appear or bring us the right gift. We didn’t even try to create the right experience.
The joy for us was being present with each other, watching football together, and talking about some things that really matter.
Our wish for you is that you would find this joy in your holiday season, no matter what your beliefs are. You will never be able to plan the event perfectly enough, and if you do, you always have to do it better next year. All of the stress of trying to orchestrate and plan for the coming of mythical beings can be replaced by just being where you are and being who you are.
It takes some practice, but it’s worth it.
Be where you are,
Be who you are,
Be at peace!
Karl and Laura Forehand
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/acorn-advent-blur-bright-278508/
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