How many holiday seasons do you have left? I was asking myself this question recently while unpacking Christmas decorations and mulling over memories made with my loved ones at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thinking of holiday traditions and happy gatherings God has given for more than six decades sent me to a dangerous place – per Dr. Suess…the pity place! Memories of holiday seasons when my parents, sister, Tim, James, and many precious people I love were here “hurts”, even though I am happy they are in heaven. Empty chairs at family meals and lonely times during celebratory seasons can take a toll on one’s heart and mind but cannot stop the reason for the season rising up inside when we move forward in faith.
Do you plunge to pity place and miss the precious place of cherishing a close relationship with Christ and opportunities God gifts us to embrace each season we have left with loved ones while we and they’re still here? Stewing in sadness stops memory making while enticing heartbreaking celebrations. We gravitate to moaning and groaning instead of praising God and pushing forth to new seasons. This story stirs as a reminder that only God knows how many holiday seasons we have left! We will always miss loved ones gone to glory before us and cherish precious memories of generations past. However, it is our duty to love per God’s greatest command and make the most of every season we have left to complete the plans He has for us here. May your heart be convicted with a wake-up call to embrace every holiday season we have left with a smile on our faces and a spring in our steps.
Reading Psalm 145:4 made me realize the joy of celebrating past, present, and future generations. Remembering meals at Mama Baggett’s with chicken pastry made from the chicken she chased in her backyard and rung its neck…and Christmas celebrations at MaMa Smith’s home with pictures of her 12 children on the wall and sweet memory making with 60 plus family members eating and opening gifts she bought for each of us brought realization that our grandparents and parents also wondered how many holiday seasons they had left as their nest emptied, family grew greater in number, my grandfathers passed, and grandmothers carried on the best they could in the seasons they had left.
“One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
As we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessings on Thanksgiving Day and usher in the season of Christmas (with the right reason: Jesus – Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Best Friend forever), let us realize we are not losing holiday seasons with our loved ones; we are making investments in the holiday seasons we have left to enjoy with our children, grandchildren, and extended family.
Life, like our calendars, has seasons. We have seasons to grow, to raise, and to celebrate what we have raised. Tim and my season of raising our children went so much faster than we wanted it to; yet, we tried our best to do it right. We celebrated each season with God first in our lives, went to church together, respected one another, worked hard, made mistakes, repented, asked forgiveness, dealt with things at hand without sweeping them under the rug, celebrated holidays with so much passion, and made the most of lean seasons.
James and I celebrated one Christmas as man and wife with our blended families and friends sharing more love and joy than we ever imagined possible when God opened our hearts to love again. Now, I celebrate with two sons and their families, two step daughters and their families, two siblings, two mothers-in-law, and a whole host of family and friends, God gifted me to love and cherish until my seasons here end.
This holiday season, do not let Thanksgiving and Christmas pass you by. Stay clear of the pity place. Make the most of moments that you have left. They will be the seeds you sow in the seasons of your life that are yet to come.
Purposefully and passionately embrace each long day for they quickly roll into a few short years! Enjoy each one of them for they are a gift from God, our Father in heaven. Let us rejoice and be glad for each season we share and declare His mighty acts!
Happy Thanksgiving to loyal readers who inspire me to keep writing good news stories that testify to God’s love and desire for us to have a close relationship with Him and those He gave us to love and cherish for every season we have left!