Dieu et moi faisons de la musique…

No, I can’t say it’s “here”, for as I write it’s only early November. But I’d have to confess that even October awakens my thoughts of Christmas. So much so that I can’t even stand the wait through November. I’ve already begun my earliest attempts at DIY creativity for handmade ornaments and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” even now, sets my heart in such an atmosphere I can’t contain myself. There has been many a cup of peppermint hot chocolate to stave off the chill in our old apartment.  And you have no idea to what extent my heart rejoiced when Starbucks featured their holiday drinks in those lovely, red cups. To this day, I consider the peppermint mocha “Christmas in a cup.” So these festivities commence and it’s not even Thanksgiving. But my excitement will not be restrained! I love and adore all the sounds, smells, wrapping of gifts, and décor that tells of Christmas. It has been an obsession of mine that has only grown to flourish since my childhood whence I’d begun to initiate and oversee the heaving of boxes upstairs to open and make my parents house turn to magic. In later years, it was almost left upon me to undertake the task. I did it with relish and joy.

And now, I have a home of my own. This is Danny and my first Christmas together, so the sentiments of the coming Christmas have excited me all the more: the traditions to discover and make, the things I’ve collected to adorn our home, the baking to commence. But something has overshadowed the initial excitements of the season, particularly my desire to spoil husband, friends, and family with gifts. (This is most definitely part of my love language; I cannot deny it.) We are, let’s say, on a tight budget. Thus, the NEED for creativity and DIY ideas. I have never had to push myself to this kind of “craftiness,” if you will. But, as my sister told me, it will surely make this Christmas far more sentimental and meaningful. More heart and creativity must go into it now, and, perhaps, even more thought.

I, myself, have been a tug-a-war of mixed feelings. Part of me has found a different excitement over the simplicity this Christmas calls for: I realize, amidst this frugal time, that I have little need and even my wants for this or that indulgence has seemed to wane. And yet, my urge to give and spoil, to wrap an array of gifts with such anticipation, to see my home screaming “Christmas” with all the lights and trimmings, has caused a spout of discouragement. I certainly can’t do all I would, given the means. It’s not something I wish to complain about. But it certainly a good reality check! And, even so, it causes me to evaluate what I really hold most dear about Christmas. Yikes! Heart check!

It’s not that all these things that fall under “the most wonderful time of the year” are wrong. But they take quite an easy tendency of capturing the full attention of this time and season. For others, this may be the bigger significance to Christmas. And then there are some who loathe Christmas altogether. This may be due very much to an overemphasis of presents and family. But I know that if everything was stripped away; if there were no gifts, no tree with all its trimmings, no home with all its red and green cheer; if there wasn’t even much to rejoice over at all, Christmas would remain a sounding gong and call for celebration. And perhaps I need a Christmas just like this one to put me in my place on the matter. Or maybe it’s still a part of the process God has me in to show me what is far more important. I call it a process, because I’ve struggled with the real weight of Christmas for some time now. And I’ve always wanted Christ’s birth to overtake my heart with the same joy proclaimed in “Joy to the World” along with all those beautiful yuletide hymns.  It’s been a constant struggle. But I know God has been working to make the storybook idea of the nativity a true, tangible, breathtaking reality.

And, with that acknowledgement, I suppose I’m content. I will discover, rediscover, and grow in the fact of my Savior coming as a impoverished babe for the precise intent to reconcile and redeem what sin has raped and soiled. Even as of late, I have become better acquainted with the unruly deficit in my life, in this world, because of sin. And I pursue the power that saves: nothing but the blood of Jesus. As the song goes, “He lived to die.”

The celebration begins with His life here. The redemption plan thus commenced. And with all the joy Christmas already excites in my life, how much more? I will continue to bask in all the beautiful Christmas festivities. I will remain a lover of the scents, smells, sounds, that thus follow. And, as far as I’m concerned, I will only become more passionate towards the season. His life reborn within shall make it so.

Joy to the world

The Lord has come

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart

Prepare Him room…