Good morning, today is Christmas Eve and it’s an important part of the holidays with personal celebration, family time and for many, Christmas Eve services at their local Church. For us, Christmas Eve is a time to get together with family and we exchange family gifts and later after our daughter goes to bed, my husband and I will curl up and watch a favored movie or just talk for a few hours under the lights of the Christmas tree.
Thinking About the Future
I always think about the future on Christmas Eve. I know a lot of people who are very disappointed with life because we painted this picture of the future that was rosy and brilliant and when that future arrived and it required some assembly, we were disappointed. The future, sometimes, is very much like the Christmas present that you longed for as a child, but when you got it – it just didn’t quite live up to the expectations.
Today is a day for reminiscing and for looking ahead. In our own ways, we are all dreamers, shapers, thinkers and makers. The gilt doesn’t just go away when we grow up, but we get too caught up with the fact that what we thought would happen didn’t, that we forget to enjoy what has happened.
Christmas Eve marks the birth of a great man in our past. A man who was born into poor circumstances and based on the story, he was born in the midst of a stable full of animals. He made his own future, he endured hardship and he never lost sight of the good even amidst all the bad. In honor of that man, many celebrate his birth tonight and we add the small baby Jesus to our nativity after the sun goes down.
My family remembers the past on Christmas Eve and we think about the future. We let go of the regrets for choices we did not make, because every choice we did make brought us to this moment – where the two of us are together and we have our beautiful little girl. Tonight is a holy night and I do not believe you must be Christian to share in the blessings of it – so Merry Christmas to you all and to all a blessed and holy night.
How will you spend Christmas Eve?
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