Dec. 2, 2006 - Its Christmas Time in the City
Well, it finally snowed! You can imagine that school came to a complete halt--actually school never started today--when the children woke up to see the snow whirling from above. Then came the coats, boot and gloves (which no one could find, and my 4 yr old son wore a pair of hot pink gloves because we couldn't find his Spider Man gloves). They even made the cutest one, almost, circle-high snowman with stick arms, Fruit Loop eyes and smile and a carrot for the nose! The carrot was bigger than the snowman actually. Well after 3 hours, the squirrels came and ate Mr. Frosty!
The snow, the Christmas music, the Christmas movies and the talk of Christmas in the air has made me reflect on the importance of Christmas. Most of us get excited at this time of year. We do things that we don't normally do. We clean a little more, cook a little more, eat a little more and shop a lot more  . After watching The Grinch that Stole Christmas, my hubby and I sat down to talk with the children. You remember the scene where after the Grinch steals the stockings, trees, food and gifts (even the crumbs off the floor) and Christmas arrives, he waits eagerly for screams and yelling and crying. But none of that happens. All the people of Whooville gather around the place where a large tree would've been, and they held hands and sang uplifting songs. Well the Grinch was stumped. the people were still so joyous, yet they had nothing. Then the Grinch realized that Christmas must be about much more, and he returned the gifts!
Boy was he right. Christmas is about much more. Its beautiful at Christmas time, and it very well should be. The lights, the colors, the peace and kindness. Yet do we consider and teach our children why! As we talked to the children we asked them what is Christmas about? They answered, "Jesus' birthday!" "Correct, I said." "Why is His birthday so important and special?" Well this question received several answers. "Beacuse He is God, because He is a King, etc." None of these answers were wrong, but they just weren't the reason why Jesus' birthday is sooo important. After some other questions, my 6 and 7 year olds said that "He (Jesus) was born to die and that our salvation was tied into His birth. If he was not born, then He could not have been our Saviour. And since He is the only one who was completely holy that could bridge the gap between us and God, if He hadn't been born, we'd still be lost! What an important birthday!
So then we talked about gift giving and where our joy truly comes from (using the people of Whooville as an example). We talked about the Three Wise Men giving gifts. We realized that they didn't give the expensive gifts to each other, but to the new born King. We realized that because God gave us a great gift, His only son, to be the payment for our sins that we should rejoice and be thankful unto to God and show our love for such a gracious and merciful father. So I asked, how can we show our gratitude and love to the Father as we celebrate the birth of Chirst. This took us to scripture when Jesus asked Peter did he love Him, and Peter replied yes. Jesus answered saying to feed and take care of His sheep. My children said that we are his sheep. My husband an I agreed. We then said if taking care of Jesus' sheep is a way to show our love and gratitutude to the Father, then in what tangible ways can this be done? We went back to scripture where it says that pure religion is to take care of the widows and orphans in need and to keep ourselves clean from the evils of this world.
With this in mind and understanding that God gave His best when He sent Jesus to earth in the form of a man to be the redeeming sacrifice for a sinful world, we came up with a few ideas to show our thanks for such a precious Christmas gift--Jesus:
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Spending time with my mom who is a widow. She has no finanacial needs but I believe she is quite lonely. We will have a movie night and a game night and decorate the tree with her.
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We will do the same thing with my father-in-law because he is a widower. We will probably have dinner and bake cookies with him.
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We are going to give to a resale shop that supplies clothing to the women and children's shelters in the area.
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We're going Caroling in our neighborhood
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We are going to send Christmas cards to a list of children who have chronic illnesses
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We want to celebrate Advent--but need ideas because though it would keep our focus on Worship, we've never done it before.
There are so many things we can do. Does anyone have any ideas? Then we told our children that there is nothing wrong with them wanting, getting or giving gifts at Christmas, but they must maintain a biblical focus on the importance of Christmas. Within 24 hours, the atmosphere in my home has changed from what I can get or give unto how can I bless God for what He has given us!!!!!!!
Enjoy this very precious and special time of year!
Joy to the world the Lord is come!! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing!
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