The Christmas Gift: Light a Bday Candle
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6-7
Real MOMent
On December 24, 2022, around 8:30amish our electricity, along with surrounding areas was turned off. Although two local friends had given me an hour and half warning, I assumed since it had not happened yet, my neighborhood would be fine. I was so confident that I did not even bother putting my cell phone on the charger, which was showing red. Once our power went off, I thought it would only last for a few minutes, no longer than an hour. I continued to text and even used my last bit of battery life to post my family’s Christmas pictures.
Once my son and daughter’s IPADs died, I knew it was time to pull out the puzzles, board games, and building blocks. While I prefer these types of activities over electronics, they required my full participation. As such, they are not utilized as frequent (I know, I know). Once we got through a few rounds of activities, I begin thinking about how this power outage was starting to affect my Christmas Eve agenda and to do list:
1) I still needed to wash the kids’ Christmas pajamas for tonight.
2) We needed to bake cookies for you know who.
3) We were supposed to spend the day watching Christmas movies. I needed the children in bed at a decent time, so that I could START wrapping their gifts.
However, what I didn’t expect this wait time to do was allow me to think about how, although my children are familiar with the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus Christ, we haven’t read it yet this year.
MOMent of Clarity
The clarity I received today when I started writing this post was how precious the gift of “waiting” can be. One might look at these things I described as coincidental; The fact that the power outage happened today and that I hadn’t done the best job in making Jesus’ birth the focal point of the season or a definite item on my Christmas Eve agenda. In the accumulative 5 hours that our electricity was off, we got to truly connect in our wait time and YES read the Christmas story together. I even had my oldest read most of it to us. The things that were essentially taken away (i.e., our ability to utilize our electronics) gave us so much more.
In this MOMent, I also realized that once I received/gain back what was taken away, I must be willing to change up my agenda or at least be opened to that consideration. It is so easy to forget the gifts we received in our wait time, the time where there are not any outside distractions. In the midst of me drafting this writing our lights came back on, at the point of where the Christmas tree is placed above (SERIOUSLY!). If I am honest, YES, I had the urge to grab my phone and put it on the charger, but I decided to finish this post first. I believe this might be a timely and much needed message for someone else, like it was for me. My children and I will bake our Christmas cookies today. However, at minimum, we will be adding to our agenda lighting a candle in remembrance for the birthday boy. Merry CHRISTmas!!!
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