Last night Jeremiah and I had something close to a perfect night. I poured two cups of steaming apple cider into holly-leaved Christmas mugs, while he dusted away yesterday's ashes from our fireplace and nurtured a new fire in its stead. I plugged in the twinkling white lights of our Christmas tree, and Jeremiah chose a Christmas record to crackle softly in the background. Then, we met on the over-stuffed leather couch and cuddled up next to our friendly elk skin. My friend Lauren lent me a book filled with Christmas short-stories from accomplished authors. Jeremiah took his time to select our first story, and then he read it aloud to us. I chose a second and did the same. The stories were sweet, and it was fun to listen to Jeremiah read out loud. However, the true beauty of last night wasn't in the stories; it was in the feeling.
What is it that we all strive to feel during the Christmas season? There is some nebulous sensation that we can't explain--we can only strive to recreate. I believe it starts in childhood, in a time when there was magic and mystery surrounding Christmas, along with love and security. The mystery of God coming to earth as a baby--just like we did. The magic of Santa with his flying sleigh and his ability to bring toys down the chimney and into our den--even though we didn't even have a chimney:) The love you felt from family coming from far away to share the season with you, and the security of being nestled in your bed on Christmas Eve surrounded by a family that loved you. When you take some of these big sensations and combine them with all the beloved traditions of Christmas, you find, somewhere in that mix, the feeling we all want to re-create year after year. I pray we all find that feeling we long for and that we can hold onto it long enough to let it resonate within us enough to last until next year.
What is it that we all strive to feel during the Christmas season? There is some nebulous sensation that we can't explain--we can only strive to recreate. I believe it starts in childhood, in a time when there was magic and mystery surrounding Christmas, along with love and security. The mystery of God coming to earth as a baby--just like we did. The magic of Santa with his flying sleigh and his ability to bring toys down the chimney and into our den--even though we didn't even have a chimney:) The love you felt from family coming from far away to share the season with you, and the security of being nestled in your bed on Christmas Eve surrounded by a family that loved you. When you take some of these big sensations and combine them with all the beloved traditions of Christmas, you find, somewhere in that mix, the feeling we all want to re-create year after year. I pray we all find that feeling we long for and that we can hold onto it long enough to let it resonate within us enough to last until next year.
5 comments:
Sounds beautiful! but i hope your eyes werent burning like mine and you could breathe easier than last time..:) haha Hold on to that feeling!!! I love you!
I just laughed out loud really hard when I read that. Jeremiah has chopped up all the wood in small pieces so it HAS gotten better. Still we are having someone come and clean the chimney next Wed. :)
Hey umm yeah i really want to come be Ms. Clause before i have to go back to Dothan and since your family cant come to Dothan i want to come to you! if thats ok..i need ideas for gifts though for your fam..:) love you!!!and just let me know!
I'd LOVE for you to come!!!! Just whenever you want to--I'll be here.
Not having a chimney in my childhood house either, I know where you are coming from! I will never forget the year that Santa left footprints in our house! My Mom has always been very creative and I still remember to this day waking up on christmas morning to find the biggest footprint that I had ever seen in my life! About a year ago I remembered this and asked her how she did it! She got one of the doctors from her office to stand on a piece of cardboard and she traced his foot, cut it out like a stencil, laid it on the floor that night after me and my brother went to sleep and sprinkled fake snow in it! I told everyone for about two years after that that Santa left a footprint in my house! Haha
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