I’m writing in red today because it is a delightfully wonderful Christmas color. You see, I lost my Christmas spirit. I woke up one day and there was a pile of unexpected bills and a vacation we bought 6 months ago looming in the air. If I sold the vacation I could pay the unexpected bills, but there were a few problems with that…first off the whole passport had to match the name on the vacation thing was an issue and second off my husband told me come hell or high water we were going on this Honeymoon – that is why we purchased it clear back in July, it was cheap and it is most likely now or never. Once the pitter patter of little feet can be heard in our life, we likely won’t be able to afford even the cheap vacations!
So, fine, we would go on our belated honeymoon. So we’d be gone for 9 days in the month of December, what could be the use of decorating for Christmas, right? If the weather cooperates we won’t be at home for Christmas Day so why go through the effort of the lights? The stress level at our house was bursting beyond the red zone with final papers and upcoming final exams, why put up a tree? The savings account dropped dramatically with the root canal; what, then, would be the purpose of getting out the poinsettia table cloth? I baked almost every Christmas gift I gave this year because money is tight, so what reasoning would deem wrapping paper necessary? That’s right, my Christmas spirit was gone. Buried somewhere under a pile of bills or maybe stuck in the suitcase full of luggage or perhaps it was just exhausted and poured into all those batters and the dough I baked. Regardless of where it went, it was missing – and I was okay with it.
Then, on December 1st, something happened. Something that looked like this:
Here is the sedation
This is an attempted smile
That’s right, a root canal. That same day I was at the doctor for a slew of my own troubles and was emotionally and physically exhausted when I arrived to pick The Hubs up, pay the bill, and drive my high husband home. What I didn’t expect was for the stoned version of Hubs to be so unbelievably hysterical. Somehow he punctured through my Debbie Downer attitude and by the time we hit Grand Avenue I was laughing so hard it hurt. His adamant demand for a hamburger and constant assurance if I would just get him one he was sure he wouldn’t bite through his own cheek or tongue was the highlight of my day.
When we arrived home I went to the back of the house to fold some laundry, wallow in some self-pity over the pharmacy bill and get a few good tears out so I could take a deep breath and move forward. When I came back to the living room The Hubs had brought the Christmas decorations in from the shed. He was still high as a kite and feeling no pain so he was speaking in fast rapid sentences with no breaths between words. He said something like, “I-feel-so-great-lets-decorate-for-Christmas-right-now-I-can-do-it.” When I told him I had said I wasn’t decorating this year he said, “Yousoundsostupidrightnowletsdoit!” I wish I could explain in text how funny he was. His humor melted the icy concerns of all the worldly things from my heart. So, we did this:
A few days later a dear friend of mine wrote this blog post. It was just what I needed for the remainder of the icicles to turn into water and open my heart to all the real reasons I love this time of year.
Jesus IS, in fact, the reason for the season. I wake up each day and strive to be more like my Savior. I try to show, through my actions that love one another means ALL mankind. It means kindness, it means charity, and it means random acts of selfless behavior. It doesn’t mean select the cool kids to love or the popular people to service. It means find the ones in need the most. It means remembering He healed lepers, He forgave and made clean prostitutes and thieves and liars, He preferred the outcast and downtrodden and through it all He loved every single person, no matter what their situation was.
I learned a valuable lesson this Christmas season. A lesson that these worldly things I had let get in my way were taking away from the real purpose of this time of year – a lesson that taught me that these worldly things are of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.
This time of year is beautiful. The lights and colors add to the feeling of magic in the air. The music brings happies to my soul and I can just feel love in the air molecules surrounding me. Don’t let the stresses of the world take that away from you this Christmas. I almost did but now that I am on the other side of it, I have to say I am so grateful for the root canal that cost an arm and a leg. For ultimately, it gave me my Christmas spirit back.
