Posted December 19, 2014 under Blog

The One Lesson That Changed My Christmas

This week we take a short break from "The One Lesson That Changed My Marriage- series to give way to the one lesson that changed my Christmases‚ forever.

The story behind this lesson took place several years prior to my becoming a pastor. I was a businessman then and my boys were aged 8, 7 and 5. I remember that year, as it was the worst year for my business. We had to scale down, move to a much smaller place and give up our second car. Having sacrificed so much, I knew that Christmas that year was not going to be the same.

Advent Night

Our family had this tradition of celebrating an Advent Night every week in December. We did this in order to center our holidays on the Lord as Christmas drew closer. That year, I was not in the mood.

Because for me, everyday was perennially about how bad the business was going. It was about making the payroll and not having anything to give the employees and worrying about what will become of the business in the coming year. I was losing faith and drowning in self-pity. But I also knew well enough to hide my sentiments so as not to steal the joy of the season from the children.

A Walk in the Village
For that particular year, Marie decided to change our usual Advent Night festivities of lighting candles while sharing about Christmas and all that God has done. Her idea was that we would walk around our tiny village, imagining what it was like for Joseph and pregnant Mary to look for a place to spend the night while everyone was busy with their own affairs. Walking around, smelling dinners and looking into lighted homes made the Christmas story come alive.

At first the boys were having fun, until the novelty wore off and they wanted the comfort of their own home. But when my boys got to the door of our house, they found it was suspiciously locked. To which Marie responded with, "Oh no, what do we do?-

Self-Pity Gone Bad
The boys sat on the curb out front as Marie continued with her storytelling. At this point, I stayed away from the pack under the cover of the evening's darkness. My thoughts were elsewhere and my self-pity had gone worse. I kept thinking things like, "this would not have happened, Joey, if you had just taken better care of the business.- All the while, Marie relentlessly kept bringing back the story of Joseph and Mary's plight.

Now I have heard the Christmas story countless times before and even preached it myself but for some reason, the Christmas story took on a very different meaning that night.

Lesson at the Curb
The muggy evening spent sitting at the curb in darkness while the bugs continually bit us was the perfect set-up. This showed me a semblance of what Joseph, Mary and (eventually) Jesus had experienced and consequently made me understand the true meaning of life.

It was that night when the Holy Spirit touched me with the words "Godliness with contentment is of great gain.- Sure, we wouldn't have the same old stuff but we had Jesus and one another. And that was way more than enough.

By the time Marie finished her story, I was wiping tears from my eyes. I have had many magical Christmases in the past but that evening changed all our Christmases to come. All because of the one lesson that changed my Christmas.

Oh by the way...all along Marie had the key. She set it all up. Then she announced, "Oh, I have the key." We all went in to a table of dessert and hot chocolate. She is after all, the one woman who changed my life.

Read related articles:
Why We Keep Watching Love Stories
Love and a Warm Heart
Love is not a Verb
How to trust in Troubled Waters
The Truth about Bad Breath
The True North of Trust
The One Lesson That Changed My Marriage
How to Turn the One Lesson Into Reality
The Risk and Responsibility of Trust
The History of Trust

More from Blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My Comments Policy

While my site offers visitors the ability to converse, I have a few ground rules so that our conversations will remain civil and courteous.

1. You must register in order to leave a comment. I don’t entertain pseudo, anonymous or bogus individuals. This site is my home (it has a Home Page, get it). I don’t let strangers who don’t introduce themselves into my home.

2. I love questions. I love them because a lot of times they are similar to someone else’s questions and can even trigger other questions from others. Questions also keep us all sharp. This is also why I respond to them as best as I can and at the soonest possible time. I believe that group answering benefits more people than private email exchanges.

3. We don’t have to agree. Debates are welcome. However, whether it is with me or any other visitors of my site, my rule is this: disagree if you must but keep things civil. That’s just how I run my home, and you are a visitor here. No shouting; I have seen it done in writing. No cursing and no insulting.

4. I reserve the right to delete your comments. Like I said, this is my home. I do not have an obligation to publish your comments. As a human being, you may enjoy the freedom to express your opinions on your own site but not on mine. To be specific, I will delete your comments if you post content that is in my sole opinion: (a) snarky; (b) off-topic; (c) libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate my sense of decorum, civility or any law, including intellectual property laws; or (d) “spam,” i.e. an attempt to advertise, solicit, or otherwise promote goods and services. You may, however, post a link to your site or your most recent blog entry.

5. You retain ownership of your comments. I do not own them and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By commenting on my site, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you will relieve me from any and all liability that may result from those posts.

6. You grant me the license to post your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. By posting comments on my site, you automatically grant me the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to a blog, in a book, video, or presentation.

In short, my goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people. I believe this clear and simple comments policy will facilitate this.