a family christmas

Christmas, here we come. my family is always one of the first to kick off the season in america, this year with a whopping 8 day head start. while this is true, I've had the luxury of making an observation or two about the season to let you think about as you go about your merry way with your kinfolk.


i think Christmas could be a potentially stressful time for some people. as a young single, i in no way can empathize with that thinking, but as i carried in gifts with my brother-in-law tonight, i saw what it was like for a fairly average young married couple. i heard about the gift totals and travel times necessary to pull off a holiday season and i think my heads and my eggnog drinking mouth is still open. 5 Christmas' in less that 72 hours! more like a Christ-marathon-mas. my point being this, between traveling, shopping and my Achilles heel, gift wrapping, it could feel like your knee deep in reindeer droppings. but here's what i observed tonight: 

time with family is one of the most rewarding things you could ever experience. sure, you may not get the gift you wanted in dirty Santa (earlier mentioned brother-in-law, massive OU fan almost ended up with an Oklahoma state big 12 champion shirt and hat!) or maybe you're not that fond of your in-laws, but i saw tonight a very specific parallel that i would love to share.

if you're a Christian, the sustainable, accepting relationships that i hope you have in your family could very well model the way our heavenly Father feels about you. he loves us so much and he desires for us to feel that. family is a blessed gift that he gives to some of us and it's a way that God can help fix a problem that we all experience. 

"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”        genesis 2:18

see without family, i would just be a single guy in a college town with no students. but as i sat between the cutest grandmother anyone's ever had and an even cuter niece, i reflected on how blessed i was. that these people over time don't withdraw their affection from me, but just enjoy me and remain in relationship with me. i can't learn that on my own. that i'm loved for no reason other than simply what family i was born into. it's just amazing. i do nothing but eat turkey and make jokes and i'm loved year after year. and in the same manner, i believe that God loves and desires a relationship with me, simply on the basis of joining his family. 

so if there were 2 things i'd want you to think about this year, it's this: 

do you see how much God loves you by giving you these people and where would you be if your family wasn't here? 

merry Christmas dear friends, i hope you drink lots of eggnog and watch Christmas vacation and that you enjoy the contentment that only people in your life can bring.