I remember the snow. I woke up excited Christmas morning and looked out my bedroom window; there was snow blanketing the ground in peaceful silence. It had snowed hard the night before; there were at least three feet on the ground. I climbed out of bed and quickly put on some clothes and boots. My parents were in the kitchen drinking coffee. They had a surprise for us in the barn. I went outside with my brothers; my father had shoveled a pathway to the barn. I remember walking down the path with the snow all around me like a tunnel. It was cold, the kind of cold where your breath freezes mid-air.
The barn loomed in the distance; we approached with excitement knowing, there must be a gift inside. We hurriedly opened the barn door to the noise of a pony neighing. There in the stall were two ponies, gifts from our grandmothers. The memory of that morning will always be my favorite Christmas as a child.
Christmas memories speak of the giving and receiving of love. The greatest gift of love we receive is from God. It can be easy to forget with shopping, cooking, and wrapping of gifts the meaning of Christmas.
1 John 4:9-10 "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
The primary love of Christmas belongs to God. God loved us first. He provided a way for our salvation with the gift of Jesus.
How do we bring the gift of Jesus into our Christmas celebration? One way is to set aside time as a family to reflect on God's gift of love. Give Him your praise and prayer. We like to read a few bible verses before we have our Christmas dinner. A few of my favorites are Isaish 53 and Luke 2 8-14.
Merry Christmas
Gigi Lori
"Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory."
Theodor Seuss