Where's Jesus?

As I was driving home last night from a last-minute Christmas shopping marathon (and not the last one, either) , I found myself feeling empty. I'd given little (if any) thought to the birth of Christ this month. I'd gotten lost in the busyness, in checking things off the list, in making an adequate Christmas Eve dinner, and so on.

It's one of the challenges I think we all face every Christmas season. So many necessary and wonderful things to do, and none of them directly lead us back to Christ by themselves.

The conclusion I came to for myself, though, lies in the twofold commandment of the New Testament--Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. The Christmas season brings opportunities to love our neighbors that we don't find the rest of the year...and that's part of loving God. So my challenge for myself is to use all these opportunities to the fullest. To take a minute and chat with the neighbors when I bring them some cookies. To show love to my family when we have our Christmas dinner, not just hurry through all the preparations so we can eat. To thank God for an evening of shopping with my husband, for the opportunity to participate together in our giving, even if it wasn't as efficient as it could have been. And to keep the plans for the rest of Dan's week off from encroaching on our celebrations.

Jesus came to earth for me. That is worth celebrating. Next year I plan to get an advent wreath and do the readings and all that....but for this year, Christmas is what it is--a time of loving God, loving each other, and being grateful for the sacrifice made by Christ for all of us.