And Now...Run
Christmas Day arrived, gifts were opened, a whole lot of food was eaten and now we sit in the post-Christmas clutter. Some of us may have already taken down decorations, started diets and moved on to plans for 2021. However, for me these days are a bit slower, a bit more relaxed, even lazy. I'm relishing the memory of my 5-year-old grandson running through my house...the little pound, pound, pound of his feet. I'm recalling the joy in his face at a surprise. I laugh to myself when I recall his sweet giggles. Those joy-filled moments speak to me, remind me of love, and invite me to love in the same way.
I want to love like my grandson. It's an all-out love, unconditional, pure, and offered to everyone. And in his exuberance for life - he runs. I mean everywhere, he runs.
When we were on the beach last summer, I noticed that children constantly run. And run for no reason. The parents walk down the beach, but their kids run ahead, run around them, run into the water. Just running in joy, I guess. But when you get older, you stop running. Or running becomes part of your to-do list, right after, cleaning house and laundry!!!
I want to run with the joy and love of a child. Run wide-open, all out, with unbridled enthusiasm, offering such joy to everyone. At least I want to run like that in my spirit. Don't you?
Christmas invites us to run. Now that we've heard the news of this Baby King it's time for us to lace-up and prepare to run.
31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.
They returned AT ONCE to Jerusalem. Hours before these travelers had walked slowly, disappointed and in despair down the dusty road. But now, with a burning in their hearts they RAN back to Jerusalem to tell their story.
I noticed with our grandson that when he loved a gift, he wanted to tell everyone one about it! Have you noticed that after you receive an extra-special, most desired gift, most anticipated gift that a lot of the joy is telling others about that gift? Yes, certainly we feel joy in ourselves but it's in the telling another that spreads our own joy and gives that person joy. And gives the Giver joy. It's suddenly a crazy circle of joy!
The Christmas story is this type of gift. Were not our hearts burning within us in the last few days? In the quiet moments of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, did you not recognize that intense experience inside your body? The love, the acceptance, the hope revealed to each of us? That is Christmas. The hope of a new beginning, a healed land, a healed earth, love unending. It is the gift of all gifts. And it is the gift that compels me to run and tell others.
In my quest for purpose and meaning, I've come to understand that the true purpose for my life and I believe for all our lives, is that the Christmas Joy fills us to such a limit that we overflow. We overflow into the lives of people around us who are searching for bread, clothes, a hug, a special treat. It's this running into people's lives to tell of the special gift that gives us our greatest fulfillment. We received Good News this Christmas...a Savior was born into our world. So many people need to be reminded of this gift, many people have never heard of this Gift...let's start running to tell.
