Christmas Eve Reflections

Christmas Eve this year:

Grown, globe-trotting college girl home ✔️
Grown, living on her own, slaying the workforce girl home ✔️
Munchies (aka Party Food) for dinner ✔️
Muppets Christmas Carol ✔️
Reading the story of Jesus’ birth from the gospel of Luke ✔️
Nostalgic gifts from youngest child ✔️
Heart full ✔️

This year looked different for our family. Three of our four children are grown and out of the house. We are finding a new normal. Grown children also means our Christmas traditions are growing up too.

For the past 15 years we have done nightly devotions from the Advent Jesse Tree, each with a special ornament to represent the part of the Jesus story we were reading. This year, with only one kiddo at home the whole time and most of the devotions memorized by now, we put that tradition on pause. Instead we went with the flow of the season, and then intentionally paused tonight to read from Luke chapters 1 and 2 and John 1:1-4. We reflected on the first Christmas and the truth that Jesus with with God from the beginning before opening gifts. That pause was like a breath of fresh air. Different from what we’ve done for 15 years, but just as important.

Sometimes we have to stop doing something “because we’ve always done it that way” and do it differently. Pause, take a few breaths and reflect on Who God is and What He means to us.

This Christmas I pray you and your family find your moment of pause. Maybe for you it is pausing in  what you’ve always done, or maybe it is doing something different. Whatever your pause looks like, may you know God’s presence and the depth of His love for you at Christmas and always!

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:13-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Merry Christmas friends!

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