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Christmas love By MARY
JANE HOLT
A friend recently e-mailed to me the story of a woman who vowed each December to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. She cut back on nonessential obligations: extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet she still found herself exhausted, unable to fully appreciate the precious family moments, and, of course, the true meaning of Christmas. In this state of mind, she hurried to attend her son's kindergarten holiday program. It was an exciting season for a six-year-old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's Winter Pageant. Now the day of the performance had come and as she waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas" she didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment: songs about reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes, and good cheer. So when her son's class rose to sing "Christmas Love" she was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Her son was glowing, as were all of his classmates, who were adorned in fuzzy mittens and red sweaters, with bright stocking caps on their heads. Those in the front row, center stage, held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas" a child would hold up the letter "C." Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly the audience noticed her: a small, quiet girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down. She was unaware that reversed, her letter "M" appeared as a "W." The audience of first- through sixth-graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, and she stood tall, proudly holding her "W." Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and they all saw it together. A hush came over the audience, and eyes began to widen. In that instant, they understood the reason they celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos there was a purpose for the festivities. When the last letter was held high, the message read clear: "CHRISTWAS LOVE" ("Christ Was Love"). Do you recall a time when Christ was the center of your Christmas celebrations? Is He now? Or are we all too busy to even remember that Christ Was Love? ThatChrist is love? The truth is, in our world today, we just about have to break with routine or change our programs a bit in order to let Love do its work. Christ's love may live in our hearts. And we may be thankful that it does. And we may want it to live in the hearts of others. Yet, for such love to make its way from one heart to another, it has to live in our hands and feet and pocketbooks, as well as in our hearts. And that's not always comfortable. Or easy. Or part of our plans. Sometimes we have to blow it and hold our M upside down before we realize what an opportunity we have for sharing the love of Christ. Will this be the season that Christ regains His rightful place in our hearts and lives? Will we celebrate His birthday for real this time? Will we come to know Him as more than a baby in a manger? Will this be the year that the pro-active love He came to exhibit finds its way into our hearts and homes and everyday lives? For instance, will this be the season that, instead of just dropping off a basket to a neighbor, or singing hymns to the folks at the local nursing home, or hurriedly exchanging gifts with your "loved" ones could this possibly be the year we take the time to visit, to touch, to have eye contact, heart contact, soul contact? There is nothing a human being desires more than to be fully acknowledged and loved, not only because of, but in spite of, all that he or she may be, or may be becoming. Discerning, time-consuming, unconditional love doesn't come easily, does it? Do we dare hold our M upside down and remind ourselves and the world of such love?
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