Little Yellow Notebook

December...whew! The Advent of our King and yet the craziest time of year. These days I have taken to carrying around a little yellow notebook everywhere I go. You see, I have the worst short-term memory. I need to write everything down in order to remember it. These last few weeks, I've had more and more things to remember. Call the 456ers about the Christmas Pageant, get snacks for the meeting, print the pictures for our Christmas cards, get milk, order tickets...and on and on. For most people these days, this list would be kept technologically but for some reason I insist on going Old School with my to-do list.

Sadly our to-do-lists seem to get longer and longer as the holidays approach. We try to do so much to commemorate the day that we forget about Jesus himself.

And I just realized that I am writing what I hate to hear every year. The tired line of "We are too busy at Christmas," "We should focus more on the real meaning of the Season." We hear this over and over again, and I write about it or talk about it in some form each December, but I'm wondering when we will really get it. What will it take for us to really let this truth sink in.

What I thought about the other day was that maybe it's not some large-scale thing but just the moments where we catch a glimpse of God. I had one last week as I was decorating my house for Christmas. I was listening to some Christmas music and just as I was putting the finishing touches on my manger scene, the words "Christ the Savior is born" filled the air. Beautiful. I also watched our youth and Club 456ers buying gifts for fifty-three under-privileged children and I thought it again. Beautiful.

Maybe thinking of Christmas differently isn't really some large-scale change. I don't think we'll ever get away from all the Christmas parties, gift exchanges, Christmas cards and cookies. I'll still be carrying around a version of my little yellow notebook until I'm 70. But I think the key is just to look for the beautiful moments where Jesus breaks through. Moments such as falling snow or a glance at a manger scene or the wiggly Christmas Eve pageant. Let's look for glimpses of God this Advent season.

Where have you seen Him?