THE LITTLE TREE

This past Christmas was one of the strangest holidays that I’ve spent.  For the first time in 31 years I had no children at home to celebrate Christmas and my dad and step mom were unable to come up for the holiday either.  Erik and his family were visiting Amy’s family in Northern Virginia ,  Alexander was in Shanghai, China and my step-mom, Lois, had just gotten out of the hospital.

Sometime in middle November Jim asked me if I was going to decorate for Christmas and I sadly said no, because there was no reason since we were not going to have any company or family here for Christmas.  After pondering this statement for a few moments it suddenly hit me that something was terribly wrong with my thought process.  It seems that I had bought into the whole “home for the holidays — celebrate and spend money” thing and completely forgot the real reason for the holiday.  Perhaps I was wallowing in self-pity because I was “alone” at Christmas but when the realization hit me that I was more worried about  not having my  family surrounding me at Christmas then the real reason for Christmas I suddenly got in the spirit of things.

Somehow in my self-pity I forgot about my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Christmas is a celebration of His birth, not a celebration of my family.  Once it hit me that I totally missed the point this year,  I began decorating the house with renewed enthusiasm.    As I put up the tree (I cheated a bit and put up the small tree…but it is beautiful and a reminder of His birth) I found myself thinking about how even when we feel alone Jesus is always with us and the joy came back to me again proving to me that Jesus lives and will ALWAYS be home for Christmas!

I know that next Christmas, even if none of my family can share the day with me, that I will always have that one special person to share it with…..Jesus!!!