Merry Christmas Eve!

Hope you are all warm and cozy this Christmas eve morn.  We just finished breakfast, the boys are playing good together (must be the last ditch effort to get off the naughty list) and Tanya is busy in the kitchen making her contributions to our meal later today at mom and dad's.  As Bebo sang Christmas songs this morning I almost started crying.  I know, pretty sissy princess of me.  It just all hit me at once.  The emotion of the stress that strained family relationships puts on you, the longing to hug loved ones who are either gone from us due to death or too many miles.  The immense weight and anticipation of being confronted with yet another celebration of Christ's birth and feeling the debt owed to him heavy on your soul.  All of it hit me at once.  

Soon though, as I looked over and saw my oldest son helping my youngest with a toy he was trying to figure out, a very real sense of joy replaced the weight and I almost burst into laughter.  I get it.  The Lord came to reconcile us to His Father, but He also came to love us, to watch as we fumble around with the meaning of it all and find joy in the simplicity of children reaching out to one another.  Joy, not in the "stuff" that we burden ourselves with year after year, but in the embrace of a wife in the kitchen as she worries over how big the pecan chunks should be in the sweet potato casserole.  Joy in a simple, misspelled love note from a five year old.  Joy in the giving of oneself to those who need it, without the thought of whether or not they deserve it. 

Joy, pure, simple and Holy.

This Christmas please know that I love you and that I think of you all with a warm glow in my heart and a real smile on my face.


Merry Christmas!

Chris