Christmas Reflections

 I find myself reflecting on Christmas’s past around this time of the year. I love remembering the special Christmas’s from my childhood. Though our family never had a lot of money, Christmas was always special and filled with little things that have come to mean so much to me.   

From the Christmas program, our church did every year that depicted the birth of Jesus, to the candlelight service filled with beautiful songs followed by our pastor reading the Christmas story.   

And of course, picking out the perfect tree. We lived in a very small town and so buying a Christmas tree meant going to the local grocery store. They’d have them leaning against the store outside. My dad, sister, and I would find the perfect one and take it home to decorate and the house would be filled with the scent of the tree. This year, I bought a real tree for the house and the smell takes me back in time.

As Christmas grew closer, I can still recall the excitement of looking under the Christmas tree and seeing presents with my name on them as well as the excitement of waiting for Santa to appear.

Then, when Christmas morning finally came, I’d run to the tree and find what gifts the jolly man had left there for me there. Soon, the aromas of the Christmas meal being prepared by my mother could be experienced. Relatives would arrive and we would enjoy each other’s company as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.

Yet more important than all those special memories from childhood, or the gifts under the tree, is the realization that God gave us the most important present of all. His Son. It’s the only time in history when a King left His throne to become a baby and live a humble life and then die in order to save His kingdom.

So, this Christmas, I hope you get to make many more memories with your family that you can look back on a smile and remember this special year.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Mary Alford

www.maryalford.net