As you do your Christmas shopping, you are bound to run into the person who is feeling very guilty about buying presents. It’s so materialistic, they say. Well, yes, it is in one sense. After all, it is stuff. But if we are buying this stuff to bestow on our friends and family because God has bestowed so much of it on us that we just have to let it slosh over, then that is not materialism.
Thankfulness is a great antidote to false-guilt giving. Look at how much God throws away on us all the time. How much rain just runs down the gutter? How many sunsets are enjoyed by the whales because no one else is around to see them? What about the mountainsides covered in wildflowers that no human eye will behold? God just gives and gives and gives recklessly. He doesn’t want us to feel guilty about the sunset or the flowers. He wants us to overflow in thanksgiving. And though we cannot come near His capacity to give, we can imitate His extravagance by giving gifts and filling stockings and making fudge, all to the glory and praise of The Great Gift Giver Extraordinaire.
 If you are thinking about Christmas gifts for the book lover in your family, especially the person who loves and adores first editions of anything by Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, or Wodehouse, then be sure to check out the books my friend (and co-Nana) Diane Garaway has for sale at Santacruz Books. We have a few from her shelves as you can see.
I hope you all had a nice relaxing day-after-Christmas. I think we had our house “put back together” by sometime mid-afternoon. But it was all well worth it, and we can’t wait to do it all again. The N.D. family spends the night with us Christmas Eve, and it is much more of a workout for them than it is for us. They haul all their gifts to our house, and then they haul them all home again on Christmas Day! That is what I call self-sacrifice! We have such a fun time with them.
The Luke and Lizzie group come over mid-morning for the second round of unwrapping. And normally, the Merkle gang would show up around the same time. (We are hopeful that next Christmas they might be here with us.) We had our late Christmas breakfast, just like all of you, no doubt. This is just as much a part of the Christmas ritual as the stockings and the dinner. Then after all the opening and what not, some of the kids Continue reading ‘Highlights’
After I had eight or nine grandkids I started wondering if stuffing stockings for them was a bit much. I mean, after all, their parents do stockings for them already. So one year I decided to skip it. That was the year that Knox asked me a couple weeks before Christmas, “Nana, are you going to do stockings for us this year?” Well of course I told him the truth. “Of course I am.” And I have never looked back. Here are the stockings of the eight grandkids who live in the USA. Nothing like a vacant coat rack to hang them on. And here is my pile of “stuff” that I need to cram in them all. I resorted this year to some rather bulky clothing items….hope that isn’t cheating!
We made some of these today at our house -Â a big hit!
This is rather obviously bits of egg carton painted and glittered and hung with a bell, but the general Christmas merriment level was definitely boosted! And now, if you come into our house, the front door will softly jingle and children will come running to tell you all about it! What more could you possibly want?
This is another article on Mary that I wrote for Table Talk some years ago.
The beautiful Christmas story should become more and more familiar and dear to us as the years go by. But this familiarity can blunt the force of the story if we are not careful. The mere fact of the Lord’s advent should never cease to startle and amaze us. Though the world grows weary of its own Christ-less celebrations, we should be increasing and “growing fat” in our joy and wonder at the marvel of God’s fulfilled promises in His Christ.
We are blessed to see the whole picture now: Christ has risen! But those present at the stable saw by faith. John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when he heard Mary’s voice. So ought we to leap for joy as we listen to her song in Luke 1. She has much to teach us about humility and exaltation, for she was and is exalted. But she was humbled first, for she indeed had her own cross to bear. But throughout her Son’s life, God sent Mary messages of help and comfort and confirmation through His servants. Thus, her story Continue reading ‘Mary’s Cross’
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