A friend just asked me why I haven’t written a blog post for a while. First, I told her how flattered I was she had noticed. Then I said, “Well, I guess it was Christmas.”
A couple of weeks before the big day I asked a fellow grandmother how she was doing this Christmas season. She admitted, “Every day I wake up and tell myself my goal for the day is just to survive.”
I can totally understand. Perhaps you remember my last post, “November Season.” In that mellow, calm, totally in-control essay I praised that pleasant time between Halloween and December. I even mentioned my efforts to get ahead on Christmas tasks, buying gifts and preparing cards. I was so in control.
Those were good days.
Then December hit. Our family went to Disneyland. I came home with fabulous memories and a back spasm so bad I couldn’t stand. Recovered from that, I gave a bridal shower, hosted a Christmas lunch, and played with my grandboys, here visiting their dad for the holidays. Then our family went to Zion National Park, watched the stars in the crisp dark night and hiked along the Virgin River. In the days that followed we took the grandchildren to the aquarium, and then to the planetarium. I had lunch with my darling sister and the traditional Book Club Christmas dinner with my darling friends.
All at once, it was Christmas! I hosted our big family celebration, organized the church Christmas Eve devotional (for which I wrote the narration earlier in the month), and hosted Christmas Day dinner for those in the family who could come.
The day after Christmas I came down with a bad cold (which I think I totally earned), and I have spent the rest of December mostly lying down and coughing.
But guess what? I never felt panicked as I have so often in the past (See "The Year I Ruined Christmas"). Well, not much anyway. I went through the month, the good times and the bad, with a generally positive attitude. I danced to Christmas music in my kitchen, I rejoiced in special times with my grandchildren, I smiled every time I saw my Christmas decorations. Once my back healed, I thought several times a day how wonderful it was not to be in pain. When I could only lie on the couch and cough, I thought how lucky it was I didn’t get sick earlier and how blessed I was to have this nice couch by the fire and Christmas tree. The chaos of Christmas was a joy.
Now I’m wondering why. I think it’s this. At the beginning of December, someone I follow on the internet suggested choosing a word for the month, then letting that word guide everything you do. It could be, for example, joy or peace or celebrate. I decided on Love.
Every day I consciously tried to see everything that happened and everything I did through the lens of love. I bought and wrapped gifts for love, I hosted parties for love, I played with grandchildren for love. I didn’t always succeed, and often had to bring myself back to my goal. But Love triumphed overall. And this was a great Christmas-time because of it. I didn’t just survive. I grew in love and joy.
I found this poem by Christina Rossetti early in the month, and I used it as the focus of the Christmas Eve Program I wrote. Thinking of it helped with my goal to see love in everything that happened, everything people did around me, everything I did. For, as John the apostle taught, “God is love,” and “everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” And Christmas is all about God.
That poem by Rossetti says it well:
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
What more can we do, than to give back our own sign of worshipful love?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
And with this love, to God and to all men, here is my wish to you, my friends. May we find peace and happiness at Christmas time and for all the year to come.
Love Came Down
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we [our Savior],
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
Christina Rossetti
1895
