Ever since I can remember, my mom let us open one present on Christmas Eve. It's always the same shape, same density, but the size would grow proportionally over the years. It took me until I was 14 years old to catch on, but my brothers and I would tear into gifts with wild abandon wondering what it could be only to realize it was the same thing we got the year before.
Pajamas.
Hey! Don't knock it...it's our tradition. A warm, flannel-ly, get your picture taken on the staircase after you put them on tradition.
We also had the tradition of going to the 11:00 pm Christmas Eve service at our church in South Dakota. I'll be honest, I wasn't always thrilled about going to church especially in our new PJ's (just kidding :) ), but we went anyway. We went to church regularly so weren't a "ChrEaster" family, but my mom always wanted to make sure we knew the reason for Christmas.
It wasn't enough to just destroy presents the next moment as if we were looking for plastic explosives or searching for the Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. No, it was important to our family that we remembered the birth of our Savior...our Emmanuel...Jesus Christ.
Listen, this isn't a plug to come to one of our Campuses today. Sure, we'd love to have ya and you can find out our service times at www.parkviewlockport.com ,but what I do want is for you and your family to reflect on Christ even for just a split second. Here are some possible ways to pause:
- Pause a little longer before the buffet of presents begins and pray.
- Go to a Christmas Eve service and talk on the way home in the car.
- Read the Night Before Christmas tonight and Luke 2:1-21 on Christmas morning.
- Take a closer look at the Nativity Set with the kids tonight.
- Buy a present for a needy child or food for a needy family as an act of giving back to Christ.
I could go on and on, but my point is to encourage you to start a tradition in your family that lets Jesus be the centerpiece this Christmas. Yes Slip-and-Slide Elmo (doesn't exist...totally made up) is awesome, but next year it will fade to something else and then to something else and on and on it will go. What will never fade or be a fad is Jesus. His track record of being on top for over 2,000 years is pretty impressive.
So since it is His birthday party, I think it is only fair that we at least pause in our footy pj's and give thanks to the King of Kings Jesus Christ this Christmas.
Merry Christmas!!!
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