The Luster of Christmas

Christmas has since I can remember been a time of fanciful imaginging and wonderlands of daydreams. However, in recent years, this favorite time of the year for me has been losing its luster. Even my all-time favorite movie, "A Christmas Story," was a bit anti-climatic this past week. Have I shot Christmas-eye out?

However, this Christmas will go down on record as the most memorable for me ... due to a short visit back in Georgia (where most sweetly-good things are!) with my brother's family and a couple of friends. In visiting with my brother's family, he and I got the unique opportunity to teach his 5-year old daughter how to ride a bike ... with no training wheels. He had already begun to work with her. Upon arriving at his place, I joined in the fun, and together we helped her move from terrible fright (especially on concrete) to riding by herself (on concrete) with emotional zest ... all in one day!!!!!!!

From whipping him in several riviting games of checkers to great conversations with several other family folks to putting stickers on Burger King toys for both my neice and nephew to staying up late and watching "Pirates of the Carribean 3" and eating fudge with my sister-in-law to connecting over lunch with three really great friends who really love the Lord with deep passion; this visit really scratched my Christmas itch. As an emotional stocking-stuffer, I got to return home to my wife, who has become my best friend and talk to a another good friend on the phone, who I had to leave behind in Kentucky.

Yes, giving is a major part of Christmas; and while buying stuff to give to people can potentially cause you to think about someone other than yourself ... many people are actually drowning self-consumption. The gift-giving tends to be more about them than the person for whom they're buying.

What made this visit so rewarding, I believe, (even though I happily and proudly bought things for people) was the opportunity and ability to personally invest in the lives of others and tend to relationships with people very important to me. That is something which makes even the brightest Higbee's Christmas window display pale in comparison.

The Higbee's picture is from the site: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=022301.