Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Spirit of Christmas...

So my house has turned into Santa's workshop the last few days. We decided to hand-make many of our gifts this year so every flat surface has turned into a workbench. All other work has come to a near halt. And bedtimes are thrown out the window as we work on creating tokens for those we love.

And it has had a wonderful effect on our household! Our kids are more excited than I've ever seen them and it is mostly about the gifts they are giving rather than the gifts they are receiving.

That is the spirit of Christmas.

Yesterday I had a wonderful experience while driving my school bus. For the last two weeks there has been a war raging over the music I put on the radio. They have fought tooth-and-nail against my efforts to play Christmas music. They've complained. They've whined. They have turned up their mp3's on their phones and waved them in the air in defiance.

And then yesterday (our last day of school before Christmas break), I determined that the Christmas music would win. I braced myself for the battle. And an amazing thing happened: They all sang along. Everyone of them.

That is the spirit of Christmas.

And it seems everywhere you go during this holiday season you see people holding the door for each other. Putting money into the Salvation Army buckets. Smiling more. Saying "I love you" more.

That is the spirit of Christmas.

And as I sit here this morning typing this while listening to the perpetual loop of Christmas songs that is going on in my house, I wonder...

Why do we reserve this beautiful spirit for just a few weeks a year? Whether people realize it or not, this spirit is of a loving Creator God who sent His Son to die for the people He loves, and He has promised He will fill us with His very Spirit if we will just accept His offer of a relationship through His Son. This Christmas Spirit we are seeing is just a glimpse of the way life could be...if we would live in true relationship with our God.

So tell me how you've seen the Spirit this season. And then help me figure out how we can spread that out all year long! God bless.

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