Christmas...

What if an all knowing powerful God knew what our world would look like in 2011 when He sent his Son to earth so long ago? What if He knew how crazy we would make our lives? What if he knew how much we would shop, spend on gifts, and stress about our busy holiday schedules? What if He knew how much we would lose the meaning of Christmas?

I am thinking that He knew. And it makes me feel sad.

This year Steve and I decided to scale back on the amount of gifts we bought for other people. I had fun making some jewelry for some people so that I could say, "I am thinking about you this holiday season." And instead of spending a ton of money on toys for our kids Steve and a couple of our best guy friends built our girls bunk beds and a doll house. We played down Santa this year, we didn't make it to every Christmas party we were invited to...all in all we had a pretty relaxed holiday season.

We definitely didn't do everything right, nor am I saying that this is "the way" to do Christmas. The difference is that this year when I was at church on Christmas Eve I wasn't thinking about all the things I still needed to do, thinking about all the presents I still needed to wrap, wishing I hadn't spent so much money, or thinking that I got too wrapped up in holiday festivities.

Instead I looked around and was able to observe Christmas Eve differently. For the majority of the people that I was surrounded by during that church service were happy, joyful, giving and caught up in the meaning of loving one another. I had the thought that maybe this is a small little sliver of a glimpse of what the atmosphere in heaven will be like someday...people caught up in loving one another and celebrating Jesus. In a room charged with happy and joyful energy - all because God loved us enough to give us the great gift of his Son - it was a really, really good feeling.

Life everlasting with people living out every potential of their goodness and then some - what a beautiful gift.

Thank you Jesus.