Merry Christmas!

This is the first opportunity I've had to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope it has been a good one.

This Christmas has been the most humbling, and memorable one for me. Financially it has been a rough year for our family, but the Lord has always provided, and for that I thank Him. Because things have been tight, my husband and I decided he and I were not going to get each other anything for Christmas. We used Christmas money we received from a relative to buy our daughters some things. Plus, they received gifts from other relatives too, so they had three days worth of opening presents. Because we had less money to spend on them this year, we choose more wisely the gifts they were receiving from us due to our being blessed with the Christmas money from our relative.

This caused me to focus completely on the REAL MEANING of Christmas, and that is Christ's birth, so that's what I've been doing this month. I sang Christmas hymns during the week, and pondered the coming of Christ in the form of a baby.

Our son had to work yesterday, and so he dropped our daughter in law and granddaughter off early yesterday morning on his way to work. They spent Christmas Eve with us, including spending the night. Our granddaughter is 3 months old now, and as I held her, I thought of Jesus, and how He had once been a little baby like her.

We washed a load of towels late in the afternoon, and discovered that our dryer broke completely and we couldn't use it. We left our daughters with our son and daughter in law, and went to the laundry mat. It was about 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve. As we pulled up I saw a little girl of about five or six years old inside the laundry mat. My first thought was what was she doing in a laundry mat at 9:00 at night on Christmas Eve. She should have been in bed asleep like all of the other little children who were anticipating Christmas morning. When we went inside, she went outside, and it looked as though she was alone. I went out there because I was concerned about her, and then saw a young woman outside smoking a cigarette, and it turned out the little girl was with her. Then I wondered why a young woman would bring a little girl like that to the laundry mat so late at night, especially on Christmas Eve. Their clothes were still in the dryer when they left for a little while. As we were leaving, I noticed two sandwiches of some type, like from Burger King or somewhere like that. I couldn't stop thinking about them on our way home, and even today.

I did buy my husband one book, which he was not aware of, and it was wrapped yesterday afternoon when he left the house for a bit. This morning I did indeed learn that it truly IS more blessed to give than to receive. On Sunday, one of my brothers blessed my husband and I with a digital camera, and we felt badly because we were not able to get his family much. He has always told us that they didn't give us presents in order to receive one back. They give because they like to. That was something that I did not learn until this morning. My oldest daughter gave me a little knick knack of a girl with a guitar, and she bought me a big Peppermint Pattie. My youngest daughter gave me a coffee mug and another pretty knick knack. Our son and daughter in law bought our family a beautiful puzzle of the Last Supper. My husband, though he said little, was upset that he hadn't bought me anything. At first, for a very brief few minutes, I was a bit selfish, and my feelings were hurt a little bit until I reminded myself that my focus was on Christ, and His birth, and nothing more. God gave me the ultimate Gift when He chose to save me through the Gift of His Son. As I came to that realization, it also came to me that I bought that book for my husband because I WANTED to, simply for the pure pleasure of giving him something he might enjoy.

I was also reminded of the young woman, and little girl in the laundry mat last night. There she was, so late at night, on Christmas Eve, in a laundry mat where it isn't safe to be that late at night, but on Christmas Eve? Where was her husband? Or her parents? Who would let their wife or daughter do something like that so late at nigh, especially on Christmas Eve. Maybe she was a single mother, and had no parents, for whatever reason. I could very well be wrong, but it didn't look like she was going to have much of a Christmas, and here I was a little bit hurt because my husband didn't get me anything. I was so ashamed of myself, and my selfishness. It's not about *me*, but about Christ. I am so blessed by what the Lord has given to me, and blessed me with - a husband, children, a granddaughter, a home to live in, a job for my husband, and that list of blessings could go on and on. But most important to me is the gift of salvation, eternal life, that He has given to me. I pray that my husband will understand that he has nothing to feel badly about, that I gave him that gift because it would bring him pleasure.

I can truly say that I'm thankful for the situation we were in this Christmas because it brought me even closer to the Lord.

I pray that this was a Christmas that brought you closer to the Lord as well.