Celebrate Family at Christmas

   It is true that Christmas is a time of celebration. There is the celebration of Christ's birth, the coming of God in flesh into the world with the purpose of redeeming mankind to Himself through the blood of His Son. This is the major emphasis of the holiday, and it should be.

   There is another time of rejoicing during this season, and it is a time of family. The older I get, the more I cherish the opportunities to gather with family, even if it is just to remember what has gone on in our lives together.

   This year the clan gathered in a rental house here on East Beach. It takes a pretty large house with a lot of beds to sleep our whole family. We eat, sleep, play and talk together. We are so separated geographically in our daily lives that these special times of gathering seem to take on a life of their own.

   There is talk about the past, especially the funny things that have happened to us, and there is talk about the future revolving around the things that are important to each one. There we see how the kids are growing, how their individual lives are changing, and how roles are changing within the group.

   For me it is a chance to just live in the moment that we are all together for a couple of days. Ours is not a perfect family, not by a long shot, but there is a lot of laughter between each other, a sharing of lives, a catching up with events that happen to others, others that we love, but do not interact with on a continual basis during the busy days of a year.

   What memories will each take away from this time, I don't really know. For me it will probably be sitting down together around a table that seats 15 and sharing meals. It will be playing games with kids of all ages, walking on the beach with an individual child, or the whole group, sleeping with 3 kids in a room with bunk beds, talking with my offspring about their lives and hopes, and just listening to them talk to each other.

   This Christmas was for remembering and also for projecting, but I tried to make it one of sharing the present with those that I love. Capturing the short time we could spend together, making memories for the future, but relishing those few moments in time, just to be in one place at that one time.

   Jesus came to give us life, a life to be lived abundantly. What better way to live it out for a couple of days in December, that to live it in family?

   Celebrate!