What’s your earliest Christmas memory?
Believe it or not, mine involves a police car. I realize that police cars and Christmas don’t typically have much in common (with the exception of the flashing red and blue lights), but in my case, they go together quite naturally.
MY EARLIEST CHRISTMAS MEMORY
When it comes to Christmas I’m a pretty excitable guy! Looking back, it seems I’ve always been that way. I LOVE – the gathering of family and friends – the hype – the taste of Christmas goodies – the crowded malls – and I LOVE the presents!!! Seems not much has changed over the past 36 years or so. As best I can recall, I was about 3 years old and my family and I lived in a BIG old two-story house in Alton, IL (as an adult, having driven my kids by the house, I’m now convinced that houses shrink as they age). T’was the Christmas season and there was excitement in the air! My family had been Christmas shopping and somehow I was convinced that I knew what my 7 year-old sister had purchased for me. I was so convinced that I announced it to my sister, who, having already wrapped the gift, emphatically denied the accuracy of my guess. Game ON. Remember, I was three, I was convinced, and I was now intent on proving the accuracy of my guess. I snatched the present out of her hands and made a dash for a quick hiding place…up the stairs, into a bedroom, crouched low between the bed and the wall…I should have just enough time!
I could hear my sister yelling for my mom…I could hear the stampeding of feet up the stairs… My mom appeared in the doorway, along with my sister who, with teary eyes, was pointing an accusing finger my way. But they were too late. Victorious, I held the evidence up for all to see… What happened next I must have blotted out of my memory, but I do remember this: it was a black and white, pull back and release POLICE CAR! (Google is too cool! I believe the pic to right is the exact car!)
REFLECTIONS…
In reflecting on that early Christmas memory…my excitement of having that police car though I had yet to unwrap it, my confidence in knowing what it was, & my victorious presentation of the gift…I’m reminded of the greatness of THE GIFT that Christmas actually represents. The gift of Jesus, the Son of God with us. With that reminder also comes a bit of conviction: Is there excitement in the having of the gift? Is there confidence in the knowing what the gift represents? Do I LIVE my LIFE as a victorious presentation of that gift?
MAY YOU LIVE IN THE EXCITEMENT, CONFIDENCE, & VICTORY of the GIFT that YOU POSSESS. May YOU PRESENT HIM to OTHERS, and may HE one day PRESENT YOU to the FATHER…BLAMELESS, PURE & HOLY!
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