The Christmas Spirit

Truth be told the elusive Christmas Spirit has been, well, elusive for me these past few days. It has been taunting me at every street corner as I've heard silver bells, silver bells, silver bells. I've done and participated in the usual holiday routines so far. I have decked my halls and donned the gay apparel. I have purchased a few gifts, eaten a few cookies (or more). We have experienced the happy decorations through the mall and fought the traffic on the way to the mall. Why then have I not been filled with the joyous Christmas Spirit as much as in years past? By now I am generally bleeding red and green and walking with bells on.

I have come to realize that the Christmas Spirit is more than just decorating my home and my tree. I love my Christmas trees and every ornament on them. I love the lights as they shine through the decorations. I am not one who insists on perfect placement, but am one who loves the people who do the placing. This year more than others, as I walk past my tree, I have internalized the beauty of my tree. And I know more so than ever -- that while I treasure each ornament and the memory each ornament holds -- those memories are not trapped in time. The memories continue growing with each Christmas, with each placement, with each story telling. For it is not the ornament itself that holds the memory, it is in the hands that holds the ornament -- this is where the meaning lies. Each ornament takes on a life of its own then, and what a blessing that is to me because if it were true that the ornament itself only holds the memory and not the person, then what is the purpose of sharing the story and sharing the purpose of decorating the tree? The whole exercise becomes a selfish and fruitless endeavor. And that is not Christmas.

We share our lives with each other so that we might become more like our Christ and Savior. This is His Season, His time. And as we share our lives and time with each other, we become more like these ornaments, hanging side by side, doing our best to bring some sparkle and light to those around us. Our memories and live's experiences are not trapped inside us, they are shared with each other, and as we encounter each other those experiences and memories are then shared and spread into a collective whole. This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to be. It is in our hands to do the sharing, just like it is in our hands to share the memory of the ornament. This is what I love about Christmas, about the season, about the spirit of it all. Ornaments do hold memories, but it is the people who place them on the tree who are held in my heart -- and they are the people who matter most to me. The memories grow with them.

This is the true Christmas Spirit.