CHRISTMAS NOSTALGIA

The older I get the earlier Christmas seems to appear every year and the more sentimental I become about Christmas past. My memories during the holidays are often whisked away to a time reminiscent of those cherished in old Norman Rockwell paintings when life was more simple and carefree.  I don’t have to look back too far however, to find some of the most precious memories of my life. It was the Christmas of 2002 and readers please beware, I cannot tell this story without shedding a few tears.

That Christmas was not extra special because of all the Christmas decorations, beautiful lavish gifts or gathering together with beloved family and friends.  In fact, that specific year we had no Christmas tree or any decorations at all.  We had no extravagant gifts and we were many, many hours away from any family or friends, however, the year 2002 will go down in history as one of the most precious Christmas memories of all time for me.

It all began when my husband lost his job and then felt called to be the Pastor of a small church in the foothills of the Ozarks in a small town in northern Arkansas.  Our house in Iowa hadn’t sold yet but to provide for our family my husband moved ahead of us to begin pastoring in August of 2002.  My husband had just had surgery for his broken hip at the beginning of December and was still on crutches. Because of working on packing up our home in Iowa to move, it was just before Christmas that I and our four small children were finally able to join him in the south. We moved into a small rental home with very little money, no furniture and not much food as we were waiting until New Year’s to receive our moving truck and most of our belongings from Iowa. 

We truly saw this as a time of faith building for our young family as we sought to use every need as an opportunity to pray with our children and ask God for His provision. Christmas was just days away and my husband and I knew we could not afford presents for our kids or be able to buy the food to have the kind of nice Christmas meal that we were all accustomed to.  We prayed and asked God for food for our Christmas meal and wood for our woodstove to keep us warm.

We watched in amazement and praised God as He faithfully answered our requests one at a time. We woke up one morning to piles and piles of wood for our stove that someone had anonymously dropped off and neatly stacked outside our door.  Sweet church members brought us some food and a little money, but knowing how much ham and turkey cost along with all of the "fixins" (an Arkansas term we learned well), the money we scrapped together still came up short for our special Christmas meal.

We kept praying with the kids and knew God would provide as He had always done before, but this time He chose to meet our needs in a very unexpected way.  On Christmas Eve, our children who were 11, 7, 5 and 3 years old all received Walmart gift cards from some family members back up North. We were especially happy and thankful for this because we had no Christmas gifts for them. Without us knowing, our oldest son took charge and gathered his two young sisters to begin scouring the grocery ads we had received in the mail.  They each picked out which food they especially wanted for Christmas dinner and Josiah got busy cutting out the coupons and making a grocery list.  Josiah, Elizabeth, Abigail and Andrew finally brought the list and coupons to show me what they had all decided on but I didn’t have the heart to tell him we would not have enough money to buy all of the food.  Our oldest son Josiah assured us that we did in fact have enough money because the kids had all agreed to use their Christmas gift cards to buy our special Christmas dinner. As I saw the genuine selfless expression of love from our kids, I was simply overcome with emotion.

To hear that our children would rather give their gift money to us to buy food instead of buying toys for themselves was overwhelming. What a blessing from God to have kids who were willing to sacrifice for the good of our whole family. They truly recognized that God was indeed providing money for our food through their own gifts they had received.  I sobbed as I thanked the children for their kind act of selflessness. We had fervently prayed and God had faithfully answered through such unexpected means. We had one of the nicest Christmas dinners ever that year served on a plastic patio table we brought in from outside.  Although we were away from all of our extended family and our familiar surroundings with no Christmas décor at all, God blessed us with so much more that year than we could have ever dreamed.

The most beautiful blessings of the Christmas of 2002 were those intangible gifts we received such as being reminded that God loves us more than we can ever comprehend and will answer our prayers in ways we could never dream of.  It was also so precious to realize that we did not need all of that “Christmas” stuff to truly enjoy the genuine meaning of Christmas anyway.   We could never have experienced this kind of Christmas if we had remained in the comfortable setting of our former life in Iowa.  God was showing us a special glimpse of His goodness through meeting our most basic needs.

On a much grander scale, that Christmas we grasped the concept that even though we didn’t have earthly gifts to give each other, were most thankful for the amazing gift that God had given to us.  He sent His only Son Jesus to save us all from our sin.  Jesus left heaven to be born on earth as a baby and willingly gave up His life, dying on the cross so we could have eternal life. All we have to do is believe in Him and confess our sins to be forgiven eternally.  I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.”

I pray that as you may be rushing around in the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season, you will take the time to reflect on some of your own special nostalgic Christmas memories. You may not have that picturesque setting of a Norman Rockwell painting come to mind but I guarantee there are years of hidden treasures of blessings you may have even forgotten about that clearly shine bright with the goodness of God.  May you especially recognize the most Awesome gift of all this Christmas and join me in worshipping the One who was born and died so that we can truly live.  God bless you and Merry Christmas.