For eight hours the first day, we drive. Fields and farms, towns and buildings, scenes of life slide by us as we gaze out the windows of our van. Road trips with small children are never easy, but this one seems to be graced with mercies we have rarely known before. The sun sets early in this part of the country and by five o’clock it is dark. The darkness brings new joys to see: Christmas lights. Little farm houses, big estates, even gas stations are lit with sparkling lights.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have wondered about these solitary homes and businesses out in the middle of empty space. Who lives and works here? What is life like so far from the city? Is it lonely or does the solitude bring peace and simplicity to the owners? How many lives will walk into this gas station that says it is the last one for two hundred miles? How does life look inside those walls?
I sit and ponder these familiar thoughts when I see it. Had the sun still been shining, it probably would have looked like a somewhat shabby little mobile home in a fairly weed-infested little yard and it would have gone unnoticed. However, the sun is gone and there it is, positively glowing with Christmas lights. Christmas has made this humble little place look like a wonderland of joy.
That’s what Christmas is supposed to do- turn ordinary things into miracles.
We are staying with a friend this week, she is a teacher in a very poor school here in Tennessee. She assembled gift bags for all of her students. Things like markers and mittens, hats and chapstick, candy and books were all individually wrapped with care so they would have lots of things to open. She told us that one little boy opened a Spiderman toothbrush and exclaimed, “This is the nicest thing I have ever had!!!”. All the girls immediately put on their new socks and danced around singing about them. They slowly opened all of the gifts, savoring each item and relishing the moment of receiving what may be the only presents they remember having.
For many children, these are ordinary things. But for these children, they are Christmas in all its glory, and their teacher and her friends who took the time and love to give the gifts are the even greater gift. The lights and gifts and trees and magic of Christmas are what make it look special, but it is love that births the miraculous in the holiday season. The chapstick may get lost, but they know that they are loved and no one can take that away. Love changes everything.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
I hope the miracle of love transforms the ordinary things in your life this Christmas, dear friends. Merry Christmas!
