All Gone, Just Like The Turkey On A Christmas Story

ALL GONE, JUST LIKE THE TURKEY ON A CHRISTMAS STORY.

Christmas came and went.
So much happy preparation for one day,
and just like that~
It’s over.

Maybe for you it was the best Christmas ever, or maybe it wasn’t everything you had hoped for, and sadness lingers.

Can I ask you to search your heart?
What gift did you give?
Not to those who sat around your tree, but to the One whose birthday we celebrate?

I will never forget the Christmas all my children woke up with the flu.

For months I had been preparing for this day. My whole family would be visiting. My mom always hosted, but this year it would be my first time having everyone on Christmas Day~
and it would be the best Christmas ever.

After being up till 2am (like every other parent on Christmas Eve), I fell into bed ~while visions of sugarplums danced in my head~ I was SO excited for the kids to wake up on Christmas morning and open their gifts. Instead, a few short hours later we woke up to crying and fevers and throwing up.
One after another.
All four kids.
Over and over and over.

And I cried.

This was my day.
THE day I looked forward to all year.
Why would God do this? He knew how much I loved Christmas. All the cooking and baking, decorating and shopping, wrapping and work, all the sleep deprivation and expectations of joy.

All gone.
Just like the turkey on “A Christmas Story”.

What about me?

I was like a child in that moment.

Illusions that it was my birthday and not the Savior of all mankind’s.
Pouting over the gifts of expectations I would not receive.
Complaining that it wasn’t fair.

But what did I give Jesus that day?

I asked for a lot.
Maybe not audibly, but inwardly. A lot.

But I gave Him very little.

There have been many Christmases since that time where similar situations have happened.

I wish I could have a do over.
Not to prevent the awful circumstances of the day, but instead to change the way I viewed those circumstances. To give of myself to my Savior whose birthday I was supposedly celebrating.

I read a quote today that said~
“The celebrations were never meant to satisfy. The Savior does.”

I made it all about me when the day should have been all about Him, despite the circumstances.

Despite the circumstances, He came from immaculate glory to a sin cursed world. The Savior, whose hands formed the universe, were now tiny hands, tightly formed around his mother’s finger.

Tiny glory, lying in a manger of hay.

Born into the worst circumstances you could imagine.

For you.

Christmas is over. Another year is gone.

But today is a new day.

We owe everything to Him,
yet we ask everything of Him.

A new year beckons us.
A whole year before next year’s birthday celebration.
A whole year to give every single day.

Our life is a start. The best start.
Our love. Our praise. Our thankfulness.

Our everything.

Belated birthday wishes are always a blessing. It’s never too late.

Sing Happy Birthday in your heart today. The heart that Jesus gave everything for. ❤️