The Search for the Christmas Spirit

At the beginning of this year’s holiday season, I was determined to submerge myself in all things Christmas. After all, as a Christian, this was a big season for me. It was the time to celebrate the birth of our Lord!

I was very proud that I had pre-ordered our family’s Christmas tree from the Crescenta Valley High School baseball team ensuring that our tree would be in our home early. (This is in stark contrast to the one year – the one year – that we put off getting the tree until Christmas Eve a la “A Christmas Story.” I’ve never heard the end of it.)

But just because the tree made it to our house on Dec. 6 didn’t mean that it would get decorated; instead it sat until this past Sunday. This, I think, was a result from the fact that, despite my determination to embrace the holiday season, it evaded me.

As the days continued to pass, the Christmas spirit seemed as evasive as ever. It didn’t help that troubles tugged at me, dragging my spirit farther down. Typical business challenges, short workweeks and long gift buying lists moved me ever further away from the Christmas spirit. Though I knew in my head that this was a time of celebration, my heart just wasn’t in it. I had unintentionally wrapped myself up in a coat of distraction and didn’t even realize it.

But thankfully I was saved just in the nick of time (there’s a St. Nick pun there but I am avoiding it). My salvation came from a most likely place – church.

Though typically a “church going gal,” I got caught up in the hustle and bustle that is the holiday season and never made it to the one place that pushed aside the long gift giving list and the honey-do chore list that never seems to get finished. Sitting in church, listening to the traditional (and some non-traditional) Christmas songs I was reminded of the reason for the season. And when the preacher recounted the angel announcing, “I bring you glad tidings of great joy…” I remembered that those tidings are for me, too, that they are as relevant today as 2,000 years ago. Because the angel also said those tidings of great joy are for all people. It was as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

So I remind you on this Christmas morning of the glad tidings of great joy that are shared with you, too.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

  robin goldsworthy