For some reason I am unable to sleep tonight, actually this morning. It's 1 a.m. Saturday and after lying here for almost 2 hours, I opted to get my computer and make an attempt at something productive. I was actually asleep around 11 and awoke semi-startled when I heard a thud. I knew almost immediately it was Jake -- the little dude had gone to sleep at the foot of the bed on the very edge by my feet. And then he fell out. It might not seem like much but it's a fairly long drop for a small dog. He stared up at me seemingly confused at the event and tears stung my eyes as I stooped over to pick him up. After checking his little legs and assuring myself he was okay, I put him on the bed and he immediately crawled up to my pillow and was soon fast asleep. Oh to be a dog!
But the thoughts in my head now are about Christmas. Today I re-claimed my house by boxing up all the Christmas stuff around the house and it feels great! I held off longer than usual but only because we were busy working at the church the past 2 days. It's been exhausting but rewarding. In any case, I generally have Christmas cleaned up by the 26th and Steve thinks it's quite Scrooge-like. But what's the point of keeping everything up once the day has come and gone? All it does is delay the inevitable and I find myself increasingly agitated the longer it remains so I just get it over with and call it done.
In the first 7 years we were married we only had a tree up once because we came home for Christmas 6 of those years and didn't see the need to buy a tree and all the trimmings. Then we were here for 3 years before we got a tree because year #1 we were in an apartment with nowhere to store stuff and year #2 we'd just moved into a house in November and were not ready or up for it. So, year #3 we went all out and then had our Christmas on the 24th before Steve started his night shift. He came home at 7 am and headed to bed. I spent the 25th taking everything down and the look on his face when he got up was truly priceless. He went to sleep in a house 'o Christmas and woke up to a house 'o nothing. It was hilarious! He was astounded to say the least. And since then it's just made sense to do it on the 25th while he was sleeping and/or working.
Holidays are kind of like a wedding -- days, weeks, sometimes months are spent planning, preparing, cooking, and within an hour or two it's all over. What was a beautifully prepared meal or decorated house is all of a sudden the Roman ruins and I'm left wondering, "what's the point?" And I'm reminded that the point of these "big" holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) is Christ, and then family / friends. And while everything else is over, they are not; even in death they are never truly over because the memories of previous holidays with loved ones live on. And the remembrance of Christ's work for us, in us, and through us is never over and while sometimes my life may seem like the Roman ruins, to Christ it is a beautiful masterpiece and he uses everything for a purpose. Even my failures...perhaps particularly my failures.
So while the celebration may be over, the journey with Christ continues until He comes again or takes me home.
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