Viewpoint: I Got Lost on My Way to Christmas

?I got lost, somehow, on my way to Christmas this year. I got confused and bamboozled and almost missed out on the cheer. I paused on the race to celebrate and belong, and forgot what Christmas means. I got it all wrong.

??When I got out in traffic and highways and byways, I saw the crazy drivers rushing this way and that way. I missed quite completely the reason they rushed. They were all just people, tired of being pulled and pushed.

??The confusing displays and the frantic effort to put up lights. To outdo your neighbor with multi-colored sights That had little to do with the Star in the East. But true, bright lights in my grandchildren’s eyes are a feast?

??The gifts I purchased seemed too expensive or too trite, and with crowds bumping around, I almost dreaded Christmas Eve night. I forgot it mattered not the cost; the best gifts came from my heart. If in love they were conceived they were a wonderful start.

??I got lost on my way to Christmas, somehow, this year, had to get out so many cards to disperse hastily wrote cheer When all I really needed to put in the mail, was something heartfelt and genuine, a fond, sincere tale.

??Christmas got misplaced somewhere this year with parties and hoopla and gay shouts and cheer When the thing that got heard that resonated clear, was a deep sincere ‘I love you’, not an assault on the ear.

??I pulled myself up short just this side of financial collapse, and forgot about twisting ribbons and package wrap and remembered, instead, the emptiness of boxes stuffed full, with only a price tag and no heart strings to pull.

??And I wondered as I tried to retrieve, Christmas itself, before Christmas Eve What of the real Christmas, the original day, when in a stinky stable, the Christ child in a manager lay?

??Oh, there were gifts, carried by magi’s from afar, who traveled countless mile, trailing an unusual star and there were cheers and hallelujahs in the night sky, as angels and shepherds gave out a heavenly cry

. And there was also traffic, a census you see, had been ordered and everyone traveled from country to city. So, that first Christmas wasn’t so different it would seem, traffic, and crowds, and gifts and a mother’s dreams.

??The difference perhaps in making a Christmas merry and bright, in keeping it Christmas throughout Christmas night Is about focus, focus on things not of this earth, but, focus and love and remembering our Lord Savior’s birth.

?Merry Christmas from Terry and Lori, and the Greenhorn Valley View ?