Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas Guest Post... Featuring Bri

Bri from Re-Create

Christmas is my favorite season of the year. I love that it is cold outside so I can curl up inside, I love that we focus on spending time with people, and I love the traditions that have carried on from my childhood.

For as long as I can remember, Christmas tradition was tied to one tasty thing: cookies! My mom, older sister, and I would always make a few hundred cookies, from molasses to sugar and everything in between. After the cookies were cooled, we would begin decorating.

Now, I've always enjoyed those beautifully decorated Christmas cookies… but those were not ours! We had homemade icing and piled it on each cookie, then added as much colored sugar and sprinkles as the icing would hold. By the time we finished our day-long cookie baking project, we had to take a spatula to the table and scrape the thick layer of icing off.

Once the cookies were dried, we would pack boxes and give (most of) them away. I think that is my favorite part of Christmas. It's a time when we can honor the people in our lives. While I enjoyed presents growing up, I had more fun trying to figure out what to get other people. The same is true now, to a greater degree. I would rather give than to receive.

The more I think about it, the less Christmas has to do with me, the more it has to do with other people. This is what the essence of Christmas is all about. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the one who came and taught us that the first, the greatest commandment, is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," (Matthew 22:37). And the second commandment is to "love your neighbor as your self, (Matthew 23:39).

So, while I love the traditions and the memories, Christmas, to me, is more about honor. Honoring Jesus for what He did for us, and honoring those in our lives. It's not about the presents or the trees or the decorations, it's all about the love.

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