The Christmas season is winding down, and I marvel at the passage of time. As I get older, the days fly by so quickly. The seconds tick off at the same speed as they did when I was small, so why does it seem like they zip by now? Way back then, Christmas was a long-awaited holiday that took forever to come.
When I was a little kid, one night a few days before Christmas, my sister and I were sitting in our farmhouse living room watching TV, waiting for my parents and other siblings to get ready to go somewhere. I can even vividly recall how our chairs were positioned in front of our modest, black and white TV. Our curtains in the living room were always open, we never shut them as we lived on a dead end road. No traffic to block out!
All of a sudden I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. In the window there was Santa peering in, his hands cupped around his eyes, his face close to the pane. My eyes grew wide, my heart skipping a beat. It creeped me out, to be honest. He had one of those plastic masks on and he wasn’t even really fat, rather scrawny. He meant well. He was a friend of my folks, doing them a favor. (They thought.) He came in the house, “Ho-ho-ho-ing” and being all merry and I hid behind my mother’s leg as he tried to give me a little treat out of his bag. It didn’t go well.
One Christmas Eve we were all bundled up in our car, all six of us, no seat belts, four smashed in the back seat, when Mom “forgot” something. A few minutes later, we left to go to church. The service on Christmas Eve was always hard to sit through when I was a little kid. The anticipation of Santa coming the next morning was almost tangible, every good thing rolled into one: the presents, the goodies, the twinkling lights, the pine smell of our Christmas tree, how would it be possible to get through the service?
We had candlelight Christmas Eve services at our church at St. John’s in Marion. I remember my mom was always checking to make sure nobody lit themselves on fire. We all got to hold a candle, even the little kids. Hot wax was another matter. It would sneak down through the opening in those little paper candle holders that were handed out with each candle and could burn small hands. Mom was watching everything.
All of us would raise our lit candle to heaven as we sang “Silent Night.” The entire church was filled with what I now know was the gift of the Holy Spirit. We were praising God and thanking Him for sending His precious Son as a small babe in the manger. We kids knew Santa came and all of that, but the true meaning of Christmas was instilled in us at a very early age. I always knew it was all about Jesus.
Raising my own family though the years, I marvel at my folks, how they got all of it organized — chores, getting everybody and everything ready to go, managing to make Christmas a special, loving time and simultaneously instilling in us the real reason for the season.
There were always chores to do first, and on Christmas Eve as I was feeding dry hay to the cows, I’d sneak them an extra wafer and whisper, “Merry Christmas!” If Dad would have known I’d fed an extra bale to each side, he would not have allowed it. Our bales were doled out sparingly to make sure we had feed to last the winter, but one day? In my small mind, Jesus’ birthday was surely a good reason to be a little more generous.
Getting home from church that one Christmas Eve service, we found Santa had come, leaving a fat, bulging, burlap sack filled with presents at our back door. Mom said Santa must have gotten an early start that year. Filled with wonder and awe, eyes bright, I looked at that bag and marveled that he had come, had loved us enough to make a stop, cared enough to know what we desired in our hearts, and filled that desire so completely with an overflow of gifts.
Our Heavenly Father gave the gift of His most precious Son, meeting our every need, giving us hope, not dismay and a full, exciting future with life everlasting, when this earthly journey is over. Love came down at Christmas, filling our hearts with Himself, His gift to us.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
(“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.)
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