Oh joy! As a manager at the radio station group where I worked, we were all given a brand new BlackBerry. Technology had never been my thing, so I was forced to learn all of the nuances of my new gadget, or monitor, as I liked to call it.

One of the managers, who was almost half my age, was kind enough to show me how to use it along with direction from the chief engineer. In no time I was beginning to build up my thumb muscles. It’s no surprise that I learned so quickly because I was easily receiving 100 messages a day.

Every time a message would come in there would be a sound like a moo of a cow. This went on all day. Moo, moo, moo, over and over again. As time went on, it also went all night. It seemed like a contest of who could send a message at the most outrageous time – two in the morning, four in the morning, moo, moo.

When I first had the device, it was like an addiction. Since it was constantly mooing, it was hard to put down. Plus, having a competitive nature, I was driven to keep up with the never ending stream of emails.

I remember driving and texting at the same time. As if that wasn’t stupid enough, I was coming up on a train signal. The crossing gate was coming down right in the middle of a response I was typing. The absurdity of the situation made me fling the BlackBerry onto the passenger seat. At that moment, I vowed to never read or text another message in the car.

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The worship service for the Sunday after Christmas at my church, First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood, is always called – A Service of Lessons and Carols. It’s just that, a series of Scripture readings surrounded by carols and anthems sung by our Chancel Choir.

By society’s definition, Christmas is over and we have moved on to the after Christmas sales. The lights and adornments will stay up through the next holiday, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Then all of the decorations and outward signs of Christmas will be gone until next year one minute after Halloween as retailers start earlier and earlier to capitalize on sales.

But the coming of Emmanuel is not something that happened one time and that’s it. Truly, God sent his Son and God is still with us. So, before you rush off to business as usual, take a moment to be still and read the following Prayer of Confession which was taken from our church bulletin this morning. It confirms that Christmas is never over.

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I’m sure you’re running around like me today. We are having the entire family over for a turkey dinner. So, I’ll be cooking from early in the morning until late into the afternoon.

There will be unwrapping presents and playing with children. Before you know it, the big, Christmas day we have planned for, shopped for, cooked for and probably stressed out over will be over in the blink of an eye.

Tomorrow will be business as usual.

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I have to say that when Christmas decorations come out after Halloween that it gets a little much for me from a consumer’s perspective. But as a Christian, I am grateful for this over commercialization of Christmas simply because it has become such a do or die time period for retailers. So, from a positive perspective, Christmas has to be celebrated because too much of our economy depends on it! And when Christmas is celebrated, the true meaning of Christmas can’t be lost, which is to celebrate the birth of Christ.

I wanted to bring up the retail frenzy because our world has changed since I grew up as a child of the 1950’s. We didn’t have 24 hour anything. Stores were closed on Sundays, and the world ran at a different pace.

I particularly love Christmas because the majority of retail stores are closed. These sacred days are not business as usual. The world actually stops to be still.

This Christmas Eve take the time to enjoy this stillness. Take a drive and enjoy streets not filled with traffic. Notice parking lots of retail shops and malls completely void of cars.

There is truth in the most famous poem, now carol, Silent Night, written in 1816 by an Austrian priest named Joesph Mohr.

Silent night,

Holy night,

All is calm all is bright

To me, there is something magical about Christmas Eve. This magic doesn’t last but for a night.

So this Christmas Eve, be still and bathe your senses in a silent night.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

Christmas is a time to sing Christmas carols, but how often do we really pay attention to the words? I sing in my church choir and our choir director constantly calls our attention to the words that we are singing so that we can express the emotions and dynamics within that piece.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is one carol that is sung every year. Taken from a poem written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in 1849 and composed by Richard Storrs Willis ten years later, I think you’ll find the words are timeless.

I’ve quoted verses three and four here because these express hope for our troubling and stressful times. Many times we’ll know the first verse of a carol, perhaps by memory, but the other verses seem to get tossed aside.

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We are really counting down the days now until Christmas. I’ve been blogging every day with a new Christmas idea to not let the hustle and bustle of the season steal my joy. It’s working!

This idea is to go to a dollar type store and purchase Christmas bags to use as Christmas wrapping. There are some beautiful and inexpensive bags that take no time at all to make your gifts look really special. If you are wrapping presents with tape, wrapping paper, and ribbon, make sure you allow your self enough time. I can remember many times wrapping several gifts thirty minutes before some family members came to the house! Talk about unnecessary stress!

Put on some Christmas music while you wrap your presents and make it fun instead of a chore. As you wrap, think about the person you are giving the gift to.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

I’ve got a last minute Christmas gift idea that might just be the best gift that anyone receives. A gift doesn’t have to cost money.

Give your own gift cards, meaning, give of your own time. For a busy mom, give her a night of baby sitting. For a stressed out dad, give a neck or back massage.

Get creative with it. Make up a certificate on your computer or just put a note in a card or envelope that says, “This letter entitles you to receive a…..  foot massage, evening off, a cooked meal, etc.”

People want the gift of our “presence” and not always a “present.”

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

Every December I would let the hustle and bustle of the holiday season steal my joy. Not this year! I am celebrating Christmas every day with a new idea. This idea is to take a walk, drive around your neighborhood or take a short trip to view Christmas lights and displays.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, I talk about our adopted yellow lab, Wilson. He is very energetic and loves to go for walks. Fortunately for him, Robert and I love to walk. We have a four mile route that we walk as often as we can around our neighborhood. In the winter months, it gets dark early, so we end up walking Wilson at night. While we don’t enjoy walking in the dark, it makes for a pleasant walk at Christmas time because we get to see all of the Christmas lights. On one particular street the neighbors collaborated to string lights from house to house horizontally across the street. We saw them doing this during the day, so it was fun to see their handy work at night time.

A more dramatic idea is to visit a professionally done display or place.

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