Celebrate

 

I am over-the-moon happy! This Christmas, I’ll get to see everyone I love. Well, not everyone . . . I might not see each of you reading this article, and I do love all of you. But I’ll see all the people on my list, all the people I want to celebrate Christmas with.

 

We won’t celebrate Christmas on December 25 this year. But on the day we’ve chosen to celebrate, everybody will be there. We’ll empty our stockings and pretend to still believe in Santa Claus. We’ll open gifts we don’t need and eat a big breakfast and (I hope) cozy up next to a warm fire. And for that moment, all will be right in my world.

 

As I pondered that today, I realized it’s pretty significant that we won’t celebrate on December 25. After all, we don’t know exactly when Jesus was born. Christmas Day is just the day some church leaders decided to celebrate his birth. And as a Christian, I guess we ought to celebrate that every day.

 

But there’s something else we should celebrate every day . . . and that’s the people we love. How often, throughout the year, have I had all the important people together in one place, and I’ve forgotten to celebrate the significance of that moment? What about the times I’ve had even one person I love near, and taken it for granted?

 

Every single day should be a Christmas-level festivity. I don’t mean all the gift-giving and the calorie-fest; that would just leave me broke and overweight. I’m talking about the excitement, the celebration of life, the recognition of the fact that we won’t always have those people near us, and each moment in their presence is a moment to be valued, to be breathed in and cherished.

 

My children will grow up and move away. One of them has already gone off to college, and she’s talking about doing missions work overseas. Eventually, each of us will leave more permanently, when we pass from this life to the next. So why do I wait for the holiday season to have a big shindig and treasure moments with my loved ones? I ought to thrill at every moment we’re together.

 

That’s not to say that some moments won’t be mundane and monotonous. But I’m guilty of taking for granted those days and hours and minutes when God’s been gracious enough to allow me to be with the people I love. I’m guilty of overlooking the tremendous blessing of having family and friends with whom I can talk, laugh, and do this life thing. I forget to appreciate the fact that I don’t have to travel this journey alone.

 

So this holy-day season and every day of the year, I’m going to try my best to celebrate. I want to be a gift-giver all year long, giving the gifts of time and kindness and acceptance. I’m going to savor each moment, and value each relationship so much that those people—those wonderful, goofy, amazing people I call my family and friends—will know they are wanted. They are celebrated. They are loved.

 

“And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house,” Deuteronomy 26:11.