My goals for Christmas-tide are intentional:
-deck the halls to the hilt (sorry, but I love that God created me a visual person and my children have known since toddlerhood that anything that stands still in December gets a bow tied around it as part of my effusive joy in the season)
-stuff the freezer and cookie tins to the max, have beds made, put pillow presents in place and push the pause button as the kids weave their way in and out (confession: I might have notoriously forgotten to make house-cleaning a priority...yep)
-note to self "release, release!" those coming from out of town to come & go at will making our place home-base, to have their friends in, to not be on-the-clock for my schedule
-encourage relationship & family reconnection in an atmosphere of grace with space for everyone to be where they are on their spiritual journey
Perhaps, being a step away from Christmas season affords an opportunity to assess how well we did with all of the above. Decking the halls is the easy component. Making beds and fluffing pillows, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, only stamina with this crowd. The releasing part is tricky with an ever-escalating learning curve. How to have a favorite meal on the table for those family members visiting for only a short time when being non-chalant can screw up others' efforts toward connecting w/ folks beyond our four walls? Need growth in that area. Grace. Grace. Always room for more. The trees are down, although I still find a few pine needles and a stray ornament every now and then, linens washed and stacked, tins are long-emptied and tucked in the attic, and paw-prints mopped from kitchen floor (because with the downpour of rain, rather than snow, visited on this Christmas-tide, we may have acquired more of those than human footprints.) What remains? The gifts? The tangible ones seldom take the spotlight. The drone is in need of mechanical repair. An iPhone has been reclaimed for a time. A sweater is the wrong size and must be exchanged. However glorious on the gifted-day, presents take a back-seat to the memory of relationship. What remains?
The visual memories stay with us... pine and holy, lights reflected in the eyes of a child, scrumptious repasts with loved ones gathered round, challenging games and pastimes (incorporating both old and new technology), blending of generations as one listens and learns from the next (or the previous).
Always, it seems to be, not only with our family, but also across the lines of space and time, throughout generations, within varied cultures around the world, photographs commemorate family gatherings. In our clan, the Christmas morning cluster is a tradition, perhaps instigated by my parents penchant for capturing their little girls on Kodak film. The Scheidtlings gathered on our "home-base" stairway Christmas morning is a different crowd each year in this season of life. Yet, what joy to see our big kids corralling their crew for a similar photoshoot in order to capture the moment for posterity.
Relationship. That's why we were created...for The Father to have a reatlionship with each of us who would embrace the Son He sent to dwell among us. It is because of that relationship that we celebrate. Through the cookies and cake pops, the dominoes and golf, the coffee clatches and late night Settlers games, new jammies, tea rings and sausage balls, buckeys and pine bark, Pat Boone and Andrea Bocelli, center-pieces lit on fire, and the myriad of things that only family understands (because "you had to be there"). Through all the temporal, the fun and frenzy that are the trappings of "our family Christmas", let the eternal be that which remains. We gather. Then we scatter. Pass it on, my dears. Live it and love well. Let His light shine in and through you to one another. And then, take the Light out as you swish through the revolving door of this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment