Finding Meaning at Christmas

I have to be honest with you...ever since Thanksgiving it has been hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit. I told my wife Erin that I just don't feel like myself, that something is off, that my thoughts and feelings are out-of-wack. I was feeling a little off center and a little depressed. I saw the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV the other day and could relate to Charlie being "the charlie Browniest of them all". Amazingly as I continue to rub shoulders with people and share life with them these past few weeks I am starting to reconnect with God and his work in my life. I have been praying about all of this but it has been that coupled with being in relationship with others that has helped get me excited about Christmas all over again.

This just reminds me of the struggles we all deal with. It is so easy when things aren't going right to draw back into our own little world and our own little life and start feeling sorry for ourselves. The only problem with that is we feel even more lost and lonely. We need each other. After all, that is what Christmas is all about...relationships...with God and with each other. It was only when I opened my heart to others that God began to bring me back. There are times in my life where I am weak and need others to lift me up, pick me up. That doesn't mean they are doing anything special other than just being there with me to walk through life.

Last night I went to my sons Christmas concert at school and I just felt God's touch on my heart. Imagine that...going to a public school and receiving a touch from God. At the end of the concert Mary & Joseph carried baby Jesus to the front of the auditorium. It was a moment I will never forget. I was overwhelmed with awe, wonder, and humility. The God of the universe left the beauty of heaven to walk the earth in order to save my life. He started as a baby just like all of us have. He lived life experiencing all the things we have ever dealt with and in the end he died for me. I can say that I have gotten back into that Christmas spirit. I just needed to be reminded of what it is all about. Its about relationships. My relationship with God and with others. Have a merry Christmas!