On Sunday, we shared a Chinese meal at a popular restaurant with our dear friends before they went their separate ways for Christmas. After dinner, we took turns opening our fortune cookies and sharing out loud the good advice and bits of wisdom inside: “Procrastination is fear of success” and “Find a peaceful place where you can make plans for the future” were a couple of them.
Every table
was full; and by the time we left, people were standing in line waiting to get
inside. The lack of English speaking skills and the décor reminded me of the
classic “Christmas Story” where Ralphie and his mother have an ongoing battle
over his wanting a rifle for Christmas. “You’ll shoot you’re eye out,” she
warns him, and eventually he almost does.
After having
their Christmas turkey devoured by a pack of neighborhood dogs, the family ends
up in a Chinese restaurant for dinner. The Asian staff tries to cheer them by singing: “Deck the Hars with Boughs of Horry – rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah
rah rah rah”
The laughter
afterward brings the family around to seeing the brighter side of every
situation. Perfect families and picture perfect Christmas’s don’t exist except
in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens or in the homes of Martha Stewart
wanna’ be’s. So we need to grasp what joy we can and accept the rest: the torn
Christmas wrappings piled on the floor, the store-bought pies, the scorched
gravy and lumpy potatoes.
That first
Christmas wasn’t perfect either. The straw was prickly, the stench of cattle
surrounded the manger and the birth pangs were painful and real. But on that
night, the hope of the world was born and unconditional love was wrapped in
swaddling clothes when God became flesh. Forgiveness and mercy were given a
name “and you shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their
sins.”
The chasm
between God and man was narrowed for “Christ the Lord was born.” From that
point forward, faith bridged the gap that separated us from God; and fear and
hopelessness were banished forever by “the light which shines in darkness.”
Merry
Christmas everybody and a Happy New Year!
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