m u s i n g s : :

gratitude : day 29, a photo by urban.prairie.forest. on Flickr.

now onto Christmas day...and that one gift.

so originally, the point of Christmas (December 25th) was meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus. there are many holidays and special celebrations throughout this month & we choose to celebrate Christmas. we believe Jesus was the gift given on that day, so if we’ve already received the best gift already why give more?

our traditions shifted by my husband and i giving one gift to our whole family...we would talk about Jesus being the one gift given to the world on the day he was born, and this one gift item, the present, something we could all use together, just a symbol really. a game, a waffle maker, a journal. our plan was that one day, when the girls were all old enough to understand that symbol we would morph that item gift into a gift of service our family gives. over the years it took time dwindling gifts down to one. we didn’t know what we wanted to do in the beginning, we just knew we didn’t want it to be consumeristic or self-oriented. we were never big gift givers, in the first place, but rather a few small special ones.

a couple years ago we gave the last item gift. it was a nikki mcclure ‘make and do journal’. it is a place to write ideas of service we might do on Christmas.
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we had just purchased apples one day from the market and were driving home. it’s the only thing we had...no cash, no other food, just apples. we passed a man standing on the corner of an intersection & all felt we needed to go back and give him something, apples, it’s all we had. as we held the apples out, he smiled a toothless grin and said, “i can’t eat that, i have no teeth.”

this got us thinking what we might be able to have with us, non perishable, nutritious, consumable (with or without teeth) that we could give when we see someone who is hungry & asking for help or just in need.

this year, the girls are talking & thinking about putting together bags of food items that we could pass out. on many many corners there are people in need, holding signs that say “anything helps”. they see the need by the river, people hunkered down in vacant doorways, wandering/moving just to keep warm.

a jar of nut butter. power bar. jerky. water bottle. chocolate. dry fruit. (jerky & dry fruit are questionable if you have no teeth...but sharing is caring, right? maybe there is a friend near by?) how about a spork, maybe even socks (i know those aren’t consumable, but they could be helpful?)

this is how we will be serving this Christmas.

Jesus is a gift of hope, love, compassion. to love and serve and show compassion might offer hope. that is our hope & motivation behind how we spend Christmas.

our celebration carries on into January....so this day of service is just the beginning. every night for the 12 days of Christmas we sing, talk, read, light candles and laugh.

stay tuned.

(do you have any other ideas for items/food to add to our bag?)