God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.  --Serenity Prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous, taken from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

Holiday traditions are an important part of celebrating Christmas in my family.  For example my mother always spends December baking fruitcakes to be served during the Christmas midday meal at the Methodist Orphans’ Home where she grew up.  My sister Nan and I always laugh at how our mother wraps those fruitcakes in cheesecloth and soaks them with wine.  A staunch WCTU tee-totaler, our mother fixes orphans a once-a-year 100 proof dessert!  Visions of orphans smeared with fruitcake crumbs, reeling away from the orphanage dining hall dance in Nan’s and my heads each Christmas Day.

Traditionally our family’s real Christmas tree is a short tree from the grocery store, placed on top of the dining room buffet, decorated with the same old ornaments brought down from the attic, including the paper angel I made in first grade as the tree topper.  Tradition also dictates that our fake aluminum Christmas  tree be displayed at the livingroom fireplace.  This tree provides another smile my sister and I always enjoy.  The tree’s broomstick core can easily be seen .  My grandfather bought that tree for us the very first year fake trees became available, even buying an accompanying rotating multicolored spotlight for it.  (When I hear addicts at my hospital describe their drug trips, I am fondly reminded of that tree with the spotlight going, my nearest approximation to “getting high”.)  Our aluminum tree is so tacky that it’s “camp”, but Granddaddy Johnson thought it was beautiful.

The same old stockings are hung, and I receive the same old joke bottle of ketchup in mine. Tennessee Ernie Ford always sings the same old sweet recorded carols as we open our gifts.

Part of our tradition is talking about Christmases past.  I particularly remember the discussion one Christmas after I was grown, analyzing which was our most memorable Christmas.  Mine was 1979.  My first child, at age six months, received her first doll as a Christmas gift from my mother.  The doll was almost as big as she was, and my baby knew that doll was hers!  We snapped the sweetest photo of baby Mary, wide-eyed, reaching for her doll, with my beaming mother holding them both.

When my mother shared the story of her most memorable Christmas, I was stunned.  It was 1928, the Christmas she was eight years old.  She was living with her grandparents Grandpa and Grandma Day, who had taken her in after her own parents died from the Great Influenza epidemic.  On Christmas Day 1928 Grandpa Day was buried.  Despite all the distress and terrible poverty (Grandma Day lost the farm in the upcoming months, and Mama was consequently placed into the orphanage), Santa came that year.  Mama’s older brother had sent a Christmas card with two silk handkerchiefs tucked into its envelope, so Mama and her sister each received one of those.  That was her only Christmas gift when she was eight.

I wish with all my heart that I could somehow help my mother heal her scars from such a harsh childhood.  Fortunately her adult life has been wrapped in love.  Every Christmas, to honor my mother, my children and I have a tradition: We each take a paper tag from the “Giving Tree” at the mall and make sure that another child caught in poverty will have a nice Christmas.

Prayer: Father, in the midst of the abundance we enjoy, help our hearts be filled with compassion for those in need.  Help us to give unto others as You have freely given unto us.  Thank you for the most wonderful gift of all, your Son, who gave Himself that we may have salvation.  Amen.
 

Verse: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  --Romans 15:13

Advent-- it not only sounds like an beginning, it sounds like an adventure, something marvelous anticipated with joy!

God is with us.  God is in us (by our invitation-- God granted us free will).  God shines through us to light the world.  Advent is the coming of the Light.

At Advent we pause to marvel at a God whose love is so great that He reached out to mankind, becoming fully human and dwelling among us,  a God whose love is so great that the Person of His son would be our Savior --a willing sacrifice for us, cleansing us of our sins so that we can be in relationship with God as sons,  a God whose love is so great that the presence of God in the Person of the Holy Spirit is always with us, comforting us, counseling us, teaching us, making us fruitful, giving us such hope that the “God-in-us” overflows.

Those of us longing to be renewed find our renewal through trust in Him.  Like Peter walking on the stormy sea, we must keep our eyes upon Jesus.

Prayer: Abba Father, help us to so fully embrace your Love that we are able to overflow with it.  We realize how insufficient we are in and of ourselves.  In You, we find meaning and sufficiency.  Through Your Holy Spirit, we are equipped to be fruitful, to make a meaningful difference, to lead lives that are worthwhile.  Thank you, Father!  You are so good! You are our joy!  We come to you with thanksgiving, praising your wondrous name, a name that is above all others!