Christmas WIth Skyler

I absolutely love Christmas. There, I said it. I love everything about Christmas.
Yes, I know Christmas has been commercialized. Yes, I agree that most people have forgotten what it means to celebrate Christmas.
No, despite everyone else ignoring the true meaning, that is not going to stop me from celebrating Christmas.
It is the day that God loved ME and YOU enough to send His Son down to our earth, to be born in HORRID conditions, yet become the greatest man that ever or will ever walk this earth.
If that isn't enough to celebrate, email me, we need to talk!
I also love seeing the decorations. True, I think starting in October to put out Christmas items is a bit early, though I must admit to getting the itch by the end of the month to bring the stuff down from the attic myself.
I also love the colder weather and the possibility of snow. Now, down here in the Southeast, we really do not get much for snow. (Waaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!  :-(  .... LOL) (had to get one good cry from that statement!)
Last year as my family sat down on Christmas Day for our dinner, it started to snow, and it snowed most of the evening. ahhhhhhhh ..... that was the first time in almost 50 years that had happened .... (personal plea God, don't let it be another 50!)
I also love watching kids get a magical treat from all of the hubbub. Their eyes become as bright as the lights on the decorations, and they jump for joy at the sight of Santa. (personally, I see nothing wrong with Santa. It gets them used to the idea that you can get something from someone who otherwise owes you nothing. It is a perfect intro when they grow up into the idea that God gave us His Son, even when we didn't deserve it to die on the cross for our sins! AND TRUST ME, ME AND YOU DIDN'T DESERVE IT!!!!! But He did it anyway, and I love Him and praise Him for it!
So I digress.
One of my favorite things each year is to go to McAdenville, NC Christmas Town USA to see the lights. I never had the opportunity to be there for the opening ceremony where the light switch is flipped for the first time that season.
This year my wife worked it out where she could be off that day and we went. We took our dog Abby with us and sat up folding chairs and placed her between us.
We weren't there long when a child walked up with her mom and asked if she could pet the dog. I told her yes (our boxer is a big baby) and so she started to ask questions about the dog and us. It wasn't long until she asked if she could sit in my lap. I told her to ask her mom, and she said yes, so I put her on my lap. Her name was Skyler and she was 4 years old. She wanted to sit on my right knee where she could also pet the dog. Best of both worlds, I guess.
So we sat there, and as any 4 year old  would do, she had lots of questions. Fairly smart ones too. As the ceremonies started, she would watch some, ask questions some, fidget some, typical 4 yr old things.
And as she did so, I watched her excitement grow as it neared time to turn on the lights. She was so focused on that one aspect of the evening that I'm not sure if she really paid too much attention to anything else.
There were speakers, singers, a children's choir and an  unveiling of a Thomas Kinkade painting that was done of the town.
But Skyler wanted to watch the sun go down, as she knew it would signal time for the lights to turn on. Periodically she would hop down to go visit some of her friends, then she would climb back on my lap and we would watch the sky slowly get darker.
Finally, it was time to turn the lights on. Everyone counted, 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1.....
BAM! Lights everywhere. The whole town lights up at once. The wide eyed child on my lap brought a big smile to my face. We sat there for a few moments, then she hopped down to go see Santa who had arrived and was perched in his sleigh.
Driving back home last night, I couldn't help but think.
Shouldn't we be like Skyler? Shouldn't we watch in anticipation, waiting on when we see Jesus returning in His glory? Granted, we should pay more attention to the events going on around us, and we should involve ourselves more deeply, but we should never lose sight of the ultimate goal in our life. To be with Jesus for eternity.
We shouldn't worry about what we'll get this season, or who we'll see, or who we'll spend time with, or how our house will look for the guests who arrive each year. Sure you'll enjoy the presents, you'll stealthily throw out the fruitcake, and you'll get one too many kisses from Auntie. Enjoy the time and the experience. But don't forget that we're celebrating the start of what we are looking to finish one day. Christ is coming once again, this time it won't be in a manger, but on a much grander scale. This time no one will be traveling to Bethlehem. We'll be traveling to Heaven to spend eternity with the one who loves us the most.
So as you look around at the sights and listen to the sounds of the season, watch and listen for His coming. We know not the day nor the hour, but we need to be ready for whenever He comes again. And let's do it with that gleam in our eye, just like little Skyler did!

A Donkey's Tale

This is a story that I wrote back in the 90's and it was on the web and located at the old geocities personal websites that were sponsored by yahoo. I have received a lot of emails over the years of people who would log onto the site and read the story to the family. Well, for those who made it their tradition, and hopefully for those will start this year to begin one, I humbly present to you:

A Donkey's Tale

It is a story of the donkey that was owned by and ridden by Mary, the mother of Jesus. While the story of the donkey is not portrayed in the bible (when you read it, you'll understand), the major events of the story did happen as depicted. And I believe, as magical of a night as it had to have been, if God had wanted that donkey to talk, this is what he would have said:

Hello, I am a donkey that helped make history a long time ago. You see, there was a man and a woman that loved each other very much. They were engaged to be married but something happened to them that blew all their plans apart.
Joseph had been looking forward to his wedding day, celebrating with all his friends and family. Mary, his one and only love, had finally agreed to marry him. And she was happily going about her duties trying to get everything just right.
But an unexpected visitor showed up in the middle of everything. (Don't you just hate it when company drops by and the house is a wreck?) But this visitor was an angel of the Lord and he told Mary that she was going to have a baby. (Just imagine having to tell that one to Mom and Dad!) But Mary didn't argue with him, which is unbelievable because women are given to argue, especially when they know they haven't done anything wrong. And the Angel had a busy schedule too, so he was glad also since he had yet to talk it over with Joseph. But he took no chances so he appeared in Joseph's dream and told him not to worry, that he should go to his new wife and support her in this ordeal. Joseph did what the angel told him to do even though he had some misgivings at first. But in order to give him time to get used to it all, Mary went to see her dear old cousin named Elisabeth and her husband, Zacharias.
And guess who took her there? You guessed it, yours truly. Anyway, Elisabeth was pregnant too and she was really happy because she was "over the hill" and so was Zacharias. But when Mary walked in you should have seen what happened next. Elisabeth's tummy began to move in really funny directions because John was jumping up and down inside. John knew that his cousin was no ordinary baby. For he would someday get to baptize his cousin, the one and only Jesus. So all three of them got to rejoicing and celebrating the two new babies who would be born soon. Mary decided to stay about three months and catch up on all the news and gossip plus help out her cousin. Also Zacharias had lost his voice right before Elisabeth got pregnant. And it would probably be sometime (at least three months) before he got it back. (I bet Elisabeth was glad that she didn't have to listen to his nagging for a while.)
So Mary returned to her hubby, Joseph, piggyback on me of course, and boy was he happy. I was too, for I got to rest a while again. It was a good thing too because little did I know that I would need all the strength I could get later on.
Well, right before it was time for Mary to give birth and this ruler Caesar Augustus decided he wanted to get a head count of everyone and that he wanted everyone to go back to their hometown to do it. The problem was that Joseph's hometown was 70 miles south of where we were at the time. So Joseph asked me if I would carry Mary for him (note: she sure was a lot heavier than before) since I had done such a good job earlier. I agreed as long as I didn't have to tote him too. He said don't worry; that he needed to walk since Mary's cooking had put a few pounds on him. So we take off from Nazareth and go to Bethlehem to be counted and pay our dues. Poor Joseph was having to put up with a pregnant woman and having to pay to have her along and they had as yet to enjoy any marital bliss because the Lord said "NO" until the baby was born.
Well, we finally get to our destination but guess what? Someone forgot to call ahead to tell them we were coming. I mean the least they could've done was to call 1-800-IMTIRED and book us a room (poolside of course). So here we are listening to the desk clerk tell us that the only place to rest was IN A BARN. I was hot and sweaty from all this and now not only do I have to carry them around, I have to share my bedroom too. Oh well it could be worse, I thought. (The barn could've been full, too). So we crashed out for a few days.
But then one night I heard this awful crying and carrying on and when I looked up there was this bundled up body with two hands just a flailing and two eyes a crying and one gigantic mouth wide open emitting sounds like I never heard before. When I looked again it was Jesus wrapped in a blanket and laying in my plate, uh manger for you others that never have been in a barn. But he soon quieted down.
And then it got really bright inside. At first I thought someone had turned the 3-way bulb up to high but then I realized it was this star in the East shining through the hole in the roof that someone had forgot to fix. No wonder it was so cold before that. I just thought someone had turned down the thermostat to 68 degrees to save energy. You know, I've never been in a hotel room that the air conditioner wasn't running wide open so that you became an ice cube when you walked through the door. Anyway, back to the story. My nose got to itching real bad and about that time this bunch of Shepherds showed up (they left their sheep outside, of course) and just as we got rid of them (I thought we never would get rid of them) these wisemen showed up. They weren't so bad because they brought some stuff that we could use, like to go out and get baby bottles and stuff plus get us a hamburger or something like that to eat.
But wait! This is the scary part. Those wise men who showed up had stopped at Herod's palace to get directions. (Makes sense, if you're hunting for the King of Kings, you would normally go to a palace. But the King got really mad when he heard who was born in his land, since he was a wimp who thought his title was on the line. He wanted the wisemen to find the baby and come back and tell him, supposedly so he could see him too. But Herod was one bad dude and he actually wanted to kill him. So the angel of the Lord told the wise men to go another route and not to tell Herod nothing. They did as they were told (they were wise, not stupid-remember) and then the angel of the Lord showed up at our place and told us to skedaddle too. So Joseph put Mary and Jesus on my back and we took off again to another land to wait till Herod croaked. And so it was that I got to have my place in history along with a lot of other famous people, too. And thus was my contribution to the life of the one whom you all call: JESUS CHRIST
Copyright 1990 Rev. Keith A Moreland