It’s Time to Decorate for Christmas!

Hello Friends!

I can’t believe that Christmas is just a few weeks away! Have you all made a Christmas list yet? Every year around this time, I help my parents decorate for Christmas: we put up the Christmas tree, find the ornaments, hang Christmas lights on the house, put miniature santas everywhere, and wrap presents as we drink hot chocolate! It is truly a wonderful time of year!

One of my jobs, besides helping with everything else that I mentioned, is to place my mom’s antique santas on top of our living room closet. In order to reach the top, I get a ladder and carefully climb to the top with a box filled with santas. But before I strategically place each Santa so that one can see them from anywhere in the living room, I write a message on a piece of old drywall that shares about the life of my parents and siblings. This year marks the twentieth year that I have been doing this tradition. What started off as my name and the date soon turned into a story–a narrative about my family.

On this piece of drywall, there are happy stories, sad stories, and stories simply based upon certain facts: like who is living where, how old my nieces and nephews are, and who will be home for Christmas. Facts that remind me of who my family is and where they are during the Christmas season. Each year I reread the previous year to see what has changed and to see what hasn’t changed. And each year, I am reminded of how important my family is and how important decorating for Christmas means to my whole family.

As we decorate the church for the Christmas season and for the coming of Christ, I am reminded, just like the piece of drywall reminds me every year, of how much love and joy there is in our church. Every Sunday, we see smiles, we hear laughter, we tell stories, and we become more like family: a family filled with love, specifically God’s love. As we decorate the church, we are partaking in both the history and tradition of the church. As we decorate the church, we are coming together as a family. As we decorate the church, we remember the true meaning of Christmas: to be with family and friends as we give to those who need to experience God’s love and warm embrace.

This Christmas season, as you decorate your house with your family, ask yourself, “What does decorating mean to me? What is it about my favorite ornament that reminds me of being together with my family?” Think about the stories that are created during the Christmas season and write them down so you can look back on them and remember what Christmas is all about.

It’s time for me to add another story to the drywall above the closet! I wonder what I wrote last year…

Your Friend, Holy Spirit!