a lot like Christmas

Atrium of the Compuware building in Downtown Detroit, (the heart of a very encouraging rebirth!).

I'm not a big fan of Christmas - and tend to struggle with involving myself in the whole commercial event it has become, instead seeking ways to infuse the "holiday" with meaning. Meditating on the incarnation has been a wonderfully meaningful thing, but I was still left with what to do about Christmas the "holiday". It came to me this morning in prayer. God is an on-time God... Just in time this time. The idea that the Lord gave was for us to give Grace Centers of Hope a donation on behalf of all the adults in my family. I called this morning, made the donation, and found myself putting ornaments on my nearly-naked Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I didn't even mind that as I did, nearly all the needles fell off. As I began dinner I found myself wandering among our CD collection for The Messiah - now it's Christmas. God became flesh and dwelt among us... and He gave us hope. He eased the burdens of the heavily laden. That is the Heart of God. So this Christmas instead of adding to the clutter of people's lives, the clutter will be spent to ease the burden of folks who don't have any clutter to worry about. I will be praying that my family is open to a suggestion that this replace all gift-exchanges among adults next year. I think that would make for the merriest Christmas ever! Merry Christmas!