I made a Christmas Pledge this year. It involved many things, mostly keeping the main thing- the main thing. You know….remembering that JESUS is the reason for the season and those cliches that try to point our aching world back to its Creator, Sustainer, Savior. And I appreciate those reminders because retailers are speaking in an OUTSIDE voice in my living room, and sometimes even in my head, and the Holy Spirit, polite as He is, is only whispering to my heart.
But whisper He did this year and I pray to be faithful to proclaim in the light what He’s whispered in the dark.
Give the gift of words.
That’s it. That’s what I heard, almost audibly and as I quickly sift through whether this was in fact the Holy Spirit or just self, I realize that I would gift much more extravagantly and spend us into debt trying to give a gift that could heal her heart, impossible. This must be the Holy Spirit and so I ask in a return whisper, “What, Lord, would you have me write?”
Give her 12 Days
Ahhhh, the 12 Days of Christmas. A gift for a hurting family given secretly, ding dong- ditch style for a dozen days leaving little gifts that tells the family that we are thinking of them. My Mom started this tradition when I was five and our neighbor was dying of brain cancer. We’ve done this for hurting people in several states and my sister and I to this day can rattle of a list of hilarious moments trying not to get caught.
12 Days of Words
He knows I don’t have the money to be extravagant this year or I’d show up on her doorstep. Maybe we both have something to learn in the absence.
12 days of words. I pray they are just what He wants.
Dear Mom,
Its the first day of Christmas, and this year I’d give anything to leave a little something on your doorstep and run. Words tucked quietly into your inbox will have to do, and I pray that the Lord will pour out love over miles.
On the first day of Christmas…
One of the gifts I see in you, Mom, is the gift of hospitality. I’m not talking only about the selfless way your give of your home and your resources, but the spirit of hospitality that you carry about as you go through your days. Wherever you are…..for so many people, but especially for me, is home. It doesn’t matter if you are in a grocery store, an airport, or a New York City street corner, the people around you are going to feel like they’ve known you for a lifetime….
