Time @ Christmas

Who has time to spare anymore?

Time is my favorite gift of all.  Time is limited.  Time is fleeting.  Time flies.  It runs out and it is money.  Time is of the essence and time is on my side.  And time is my love language (you can quote me on that).

My 6 fav trees this year, each uniquely crafted by one of my grandbebes

I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE getting to spend time with my family, with other people I adore at Christmas just because it is Christmas.  You could make the argument that we cram too much togetherness into the Christmas season, but it would be wasted on me because without a reason drawing us, we are prone to let too much time and activity slip between our fingers – and not with people who matter to us more than life.  Then it is just gone, along with chances to love…

Every year, the gift that means the most to me is the time my busy kids and husband give me on December 25 (and the few days before and after).  I realize its great value and matchless worth.  I cherish it like gold.

Mailed for one-cent in the early 1900s.

There is a time at Christmas for everything,

and a season for every Christmas activity under the heavens (though maybe not everything all at once or every year – over the course of life, everything needed to be accomplished and enjoyed and celebrated during Christmas will be…):

a time to be born (a looking forward to adoption this Christmas!) and a time to make snowman hand-print ornaments for the family-tree,

a time to glue-together  glittery-paper trees and a time to clean out the toy box for all the new blessings,

a time to play movie games and a time to break out the brand new Play-Dough,

a time to tear down the tents Poppa built and a time to re-build them in your own houses,

At Christmas there is a time to weep when your cousin grabs your new doll and a time to laugh while bright-colored papers fly through the air and some one who gets you gave you something you’d never have asked for but secretly desired,

There’s a time to bemoan too many cookies and snacks and a time to dance in the Christmas program,

a time to scatter 64 brand new Crayola crayons and 276 tiny army guys all over the place and a time to gather receipts for returns,

a time to embrace and a time to appreciate,

a time to search for lost pieces of the new puzzle and a time to give up,

a time to keep these people close in your heart and a time to throw away grudges and offense,

a time to split the last chocolate chip cookie in half and a time to mend toy parts,

a time to be silent, just delighting in the people who surround you and a time to speak life-giving words,

There is a time to love until your heart is wrung out of all love (at which time God Himself will pour His love into us, flow through us) and a time to hate evil and destruction and defy it to enter our homes, our families,

Christmas is a time for reminding the enemy of our souls that Jesus came and saved us and a time for the Prince of Peace to be welcomed into our lives to rule and reign as He should…

What on earth do we gain from all the work of Christmas?   I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race, but the times of celebration He wants us to have, too. He has made everything beautiful in its time…there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat pumpkin pie and spiral-cut honey-hams and drink eggnog and punch, and find satisfaction in all their outdoor illumination and tree-decorating and gift-giving and singing—this is the gift of God.   I know that everything God does (even in the Christmas celebrations we present to Him in worship) will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.

Thank-you for the time at Christmas, Father.

Obvious rip-off of Ecclesiastes 3.

Ornaments made through the years for the family tree

If I could put time in a bottle….

 

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