Love, Family and an On-time Christmas Wish

 

The day after Christmas still holds a little magic of the season for me. I try to let it linger and speak. Days leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas day are always busy, but the unique quiet of the 26th holds a peace that we are not yet so far removed that we can't just be HERE to soak it in for a few moments longer. Last week, my oldest daughter was telling me how she shared Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" with her little boy and how much he enjoyed the story. She wanted him to tell me how much it impacted him from his four-year-old perspective. He proceeded to explain how Dolly's mother was given a box of rags and she made a coat from it for her little girl, because she didn't have one. My daughter asked him in his re-telling to me, "Don't you just LOVE Dolly?" He paused. As serious as he could be, "But she's not family. She's  a stranger." I was stunned. My four-year-old grandson was onto something. This season, I have been teaching him John 3:16. He has not questioned God's love one single time, and every morning he is here with me, we pray together, "Thank you for loving us, Jesus. We love YOU, Jesus." My sweet little guy here knows Jesus is not a stranger. He came, so that every single one of us would have someone to belong TO... to be known, to be LOVED. We are His. We have a place. We have a FAMILY. His love, in ways we have no idea in a glass-darkly kind of way, has done it ALL, and someday we will REALLY know everything that that means. For now, I linger and let the truth that I do know sink down into my soul-bones... in a quiet house with second-day Christmas brunch, Starbucks Christmas blend in my cup, by candlelight and firelight... and will still say Merry Christmas. It's not a Christmas wish that is late to me, rather right on time. ❤️

Always grace,

Shanda