Where Has the Time Gone!
I am sitting here during a very rare moment of quiet. I am in the midst of card writing, baking, wrapping, getting kids where they need and trying to not violate any health dept codes in the meantime! It has been quite an Advent. On one of my errands today I ran into one of my children’s former teacher’s who was not acting himself. I mentioned this and he responded that is was not a fan of the holidays. That always makes me a little sad and I generally want to know why. I love the holidays! I love the madness, the business, the little things and everything in between. Today, as I was reflecting on what he said it occurred to me that there are some who don’t realize how much I need holidays. I need the interruption of our daily life. I need the rhythm of the seasons and the rhythm of holidays to keep me moving forward…I guess. But it is more. It is a time when I can spread the Good News and nobody really minds all that much. There have been several people on FB who have been complaining about Christmas being overlooked or hijacked. I don’t feel that way because my own focus is on the meaning, the journey and the manger. (My guess is that if you are buying someone Call of Duty you are not really focusing on the point of Christmas.) It is our habit to point to others for our own failings. Instead of looking deeply within ourselves and seeing where the responsibility lies, we blame the culture, industries, relatives and the list goes on. But, my own experience is one in which I know how much or how little time and energy I have put in on staying focused on the ultimate Gift, that child that was given as God’s own expression of love, by how much joy I feel during the process. That child, who if we look closely, still is accessible in the most unexpected places. A friend of mine posted the other day a question that her 7 year old son asked, “Mom, who has more control in the world, God or Santa?” Now some people might take offence but I can’t seem to see the difference between the two. Isn’t everything that Santa does in the Spirit of Love? Doesn’t John tell us that God is Love?? But if we are buying and buying and buying to try to experience that love, we are missing the point. If we are doing things to keep up appearances, we are missing the point. “To give without counting the cost” as St Ignatius Loyola would tell us, is the point. Four days to go….
