1.The Ghost of Christmas Past---We often glamorize our memories of Christmas, forgetting the bad and making the good things almost ideal. Maybe your mother was like mine--presents were always perfectly wrapped under the tree. We made sugar cookies, and she made fudge--and, fruitcake (which, to her dismay I never liked. The cookies and fudge more than made up for it, though!). We all have family traditions around the holidays. Now, I'm not against traditions, baked goods or wrapped presents; but sometimes all of these lovely things add stress at the holidays. Christmas will still come if my presents are in bags, I buy cookies from the store, and not all of the decorations get up. These things are great--but the past has a way of interfering with the present at times. I have learned that you just have to make this particular Christmas the best one it can be--and let go of the past. For some of you, Christmas may bring painful memories. Or, you may have lost a loved one. We often forget that Christmas is a sad time for many people. Let's resolve to deal with the pain--but still celebrate what Christmas really is--the birth of the Savior of the world, God coming to be with us in human form.
2. The Ghost of Christmas Present--One of my favorite articles is about the "Tyranny of the Urgent." The basic premise of this article is that what is urgent often crowds out what is important. This is so true at Christmas. Presents need to be wrapped, food needs to be made, shopping needs to be done, the house needs to be cleaned, and a whole other long list of things that are very urgent. After all, Christmas is in 4 days! But all of these urgent things take away time for us to reflect on what it means for God to have taken human form--helpless, poor and not heard from for 30 years--and then to die a horrible death so that we could be with Him. It takes time from us considering the word "Advent;" literally, "coming," focusing on Christ's first coming to earth, and His return again to reign. This ghost is particularly prone to making us cranky, impatient and ill-tempered, if we let it. Let's remember the true Gift of Christmas--and give our worries to the one who came as a baby so we could live.
3. The Ghost of the Future---It's so easy to get caught up in the materialism of our society during the holidays. I was in a store today that had SO many cool things; just the wrong place for impulse shopping. We tend to keep buying stuff--and forget that we will have to pay for it in the future. We forget to make times special with our kids when they are little, because they aren't little for long, and are grown in the blink of an eye, it seems. We forget to appreciate our parents while they are still young enough to do things with our kids--until they are too old or senile or ill to do so. We need to have an eye on the future as we celebrate, because Jesus is coming again. That is the best gift ever!
I'll admit that it's been a pretty Scrooge-filled day---but I'm trying to banish these ghosts and enjoy what has always been my favorite time of year. I hope you are as well. As Tiny Tim says in A Christmas Carol: "God bless us, everyone!" Here's a clip from one of my favorite adaptations of the story--from the Muppets:
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