Well, I’m a day late but hopefully not a dollar short. I didn’t get to write yesterday because we were finishing up a wonderful Christmas weekend with family. It’s that time of year when schedules are crazy and people are out of their normal routines. It is also my favorite holiday season of the year. I love Christmas music. That is all that plays in my vehicle from the first of November until January. I am constantly humming or whistling one of those songs during this time as well. I also love getting to see family. I love the food. I love everything that the Christmas season brings. The Christmas spirit is contagious. It is just a wonderful time of year. Really the only time I don’t like the Christmas season is having to be in public this time of year. I have gotten better over time with this, but I’m still not great at it sometimes. I don’t like crowds to begin with. It makes me a little crazy when we are somewhere and it is shoulder to shoulder people. That is when the pleasant Christmas spirit leaves some people and the Grinch enters them. Sometimes that Grinch is me. With that many people around there are that many more opportunities for people to be rude. I try to be really positive and have that wonderful Christmas spirit, but sometimes the Grinch comes out. I’m especially tempted to be that way when someone is rude to my family. You can be a lot of things to me, but don’t be rude to my kids or anyone in my family.
This past weekend we went to Oklahoma City to stay the weekend with my wife’s family and do some fun things for Christmas. We stayed in a hotel downtown. There are 8 grandkids ranging from 12 years old to just a few months old. So obviously there is going to be a little noise when you have that many kids involved. Yesterday morning we were out in the hall getting ready to leave for the day. We were just standing around talking and this couple came out of their room. Their room was right there around where our 4 rooms were. We all greeted them with a smile. We didn’t think much about it. My brother-in-law said, “Oh sorry, hopefully y’all were able to get a little sleep last night.” He was just trying to be pleasant and make a little conversation. No big deal. Everyone just kinda laughed and went on. Except for the fella coming out of the room. He responded with a very sarcastic, “Um, no. Sure didn’t.” The wife came through with an eye roll and a, “Yah, sure.” I’m not sure at what point they lost sleep during this deal. It wasn’t like we were up until the wee hours of the morning running sprints in the hall or having one of the kids birthday parties outside their door. It was 11:00 AM by this time so surely they weren’t upset about us being in the hallway and them missing out on sleep that late in the morning. But, for some reason they were unhappy.
It didn’t immediately register with me exactly what they said and how they said it. It took just a minute for that to process. That’s probably a good thing because I might have went against all the things I wrote about in last weeks post about the things we say to people. My gift of sarcasm might have came into play because like I said earlier, don’t be rude to my kids or family or you might get the Grinch. But after that processed and we all understood what they had said they had already gone down the hall and out of sight. I really wanted to run into them again before we left the hotel. Not because I wanted to be mean like I might have done immediately after they made their comments. I wanted to take the opportunity to be nice to them. I wanted to greet them with some Christmas cheer. I was hoping maybe we would all meet them on the elevator and we could all start caroling. That would have been awesome. Can you imagine what it would have been like if all of us were on the elevator with the two of them and we would have broke out in jingle bells? Then they got 16 “Merry Christmas” when we all got off the elevator. Someone once told me when someone is rude to you, kill em with kindness. That’s what I wanted to do. But, we never saw the people again and we didn’t get to spread any of that Christmas cheer with them. But it did make me think about how they were perceived by all of us. It didn’t have a negative effect on the rest of our day. We went on about our normal business. But what if that type of behavior or attitude would have ruined someone else’s day? What if we treat someone like that and they are already down on their luck? What if they have some things going on and that just adds to their misery instead of lifting their spirits like we could do? Hopefully we are mindful of these things and work really hard, even when it’s not easy, at lifting others up.
When you hear the word Christmas what do you think of? When you were a kid you probably thought of gifts. As you get older you may think of family. You may think of your kids and the fun things you can do with them during the holidays. A lot of things may come to our mind. This is also the time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the reason for the season as the saying goes. Sure all these other things go along with it and they are great. The presents, family gatherings, great food, and Christmas cheer are all part of the season. But we also have an opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Luke 1:30-32 says, “But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High'”. This verse sets the stage for everything that came after this. We are so fortunate as Christians to have Jesus as our Savior!
The birth of Jesus is significant for us as Christians for so many reasons. One reason I think about it being so significant is that is shows God’s love for us. This was God becoming man and walking the earth. We all know the rest of the story when talking about God’s love for us. He gave that Son for us. I can’t imagine a greater love than that. That was the ultimate sacrifice for us. I can’t even fathom that. I can’t wrap my mind around that sacrifice and how hard that would be. But that is how much our God loves us and it all started with His birth. This is the time of year when we get to celebrate this. We get to gather together as family and friends and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and remember how important that birth is for our eternal life. What a blessing it is to be able to do that!
As we gather with family and friends over the next week or so I hope everyone has a great time. I hope it is filled with many laughs and great memories. This is a wonderful time of year. As Christians we have an opportunity to not only gather with family and have a great time, but also share that Christmas spirit with those around us. Being a Christian brings a feeling of peace to us. We can share that peace with others. We can perhaps have an impact on other people that don’t have that feeling of closeness and that relationship with God. We never know when our actions and the way we treat people will have a positive impact on people forever. Just like my story I talked about in the beginning, I would have been tempted to spread some Grinch at first. But, hopefully I would have spread some cheer instead. They might not have taken it that way, but then again maybe they would have. I might not have seen the results of that cheer being spread because they might not have let me see that. But maybe later with someone else they might have paid that cheer forward. We never know. So make sure this holiday season to spread that cheer around. As Christians, we have so much to be thankful for and being able to celebrate the birth of Jesus and being able to spread his word through our actions is one of them. My challenge for us this week is to be constantly mindful of what kind of Christmas cheer, or Grinch, we are spreading and to make sure that we are showing those around us of our love for Jesus Christ by our actions. We should do these things all year long, but this time of year is always a good time to refocus and realign our actions with the way they need to be. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and has an opportunity make wonderful memories with those they love. May God bless every one of you and Merry Christmas!!!