Peaceful hearts

The Christmas season always fills my heart with a joy that is different than any other time of year.  There is a certain joy associated with the celebrations and giving from the heart and the opportunities to spend more time than usual than people that matter the most to me.  Those things always fill me with true warmth and happiness.  But this year feels even more significant.  I have not been centered lately on what's the most important and, always, God calls me back to remind me that everything that matters is right in front of me.

My angel boy is training to be an altar server at school as part of his fifth grade religious education curriculum.  I moved some meetings last week stay for a mass where he was serving.  I sat in the sanctuary for 45 minutes between the time he had to be there for preparation and when mass started.  I was just THERE in the house of the Lord with my son and his friends moving around to prepare for mass and it was lovely.  A quiet, stolen sliver of time in a sacred place during the busiest time of year was such a blessing for me.  And seeing the pride of my son serving the Lord . . . no words.  The framework of his service during advent just magnifies the sacredness of all of it.

Tomorrow night the Princess will sing at Noel Night with the other tiny songbirds in the Cherubs Choir.  I anticipate it fully and wholly and treasure that she is so excited to sing the songs of Christmas.  I do know that she is excited too to wear a choir robe and I find that absolutely charming.

The halls are decked.  I mean fully decked by my little sweet peas.  We can't eat at the dining room table because it is fully covered with our holiday village and faux snow.  Every single ornament we own is on the tree below the five foot mark and in the front.  And this year I am forcing myself to be totally OK with it.  The joy of my children and the gift of their love is worth more than every beautiful thing I can imagine.

Time here is never guaranteed and Santa will be a distant memory soon enough.  I will cherish every poorly placed ball and ceramic figure skater for much longer than I will remember wishing the mantle were perfectly adorned.

 

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

2 Corinthians 9:15