Grandparents and the Spirit of Christmas Past
âI will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teachâ (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.)Â
I remember one of my Motherâs Christmas Eve suppers of schnitz soup and grebble when the soup ran low. My mother added hot water and the problem was solved. Dadâs witty observation, âNow we have Schnitz waterâ, had us all smiling.
I remember Dad sitting at the organ, pumping the peddles and playing âSilent Night.â We sang, âChrist our Savior is Born.â Christmas is about Grandparents â Dadâs had lived in Russia, Wilhelm and Elizabeth.
Before Christmas mankind had existed. Earliest man had primitive instincts, but God gifted humankind with intellect as well. Descartes at some point realized that even people who donât think, exist. Grace continues to break through.
I remember holding my infant grandson (seventeen months) and saying night prayers with him. When I finished, I asked him if he wanted to add any prayer. âAlleluia, alleluia,â he said. Grace was alive.
What was the message of love our parents and grandparents were passing on to us?Â
âI guess the most troublesome gift at Christmas is the Child Himself. What do we say? We smile nicely and pat the humbly wrapped present. âHow nice of you, God, to have been so thoughtful,â we mumble politely. But the Gift lies on the dresser unopened year after year.Â
âPerhaps because we donât expect to find much inside except a useless religious trinket. Perhaps because we donât feel any need for God just now. Perhaps because we know that if we unwrap the Gift, weâll be obligated to the Giver beyond what we can ever repay.
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âAnd so it sits⦠until in loneliness, in pain, in utter desperation we tug at the ribbons and tear off the wrappings, hoping against hope weâll find inside what weâve longed for. And so it is. Unconditional love!â (from âA Gift All Wrapped in Swaddling Clothesâ by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson).
It was love that God gave us when the Word became flesh in our Mother Mary. Always there is family where there is love. The Holy Spirit guided the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as He dwelt among us.Â
Jesus shared the story of the talents which we are given to use in love of and service to others. âWell done, my good servant,â the master says to those who used their talents. (Luke 19:11-28). Then Jesus went on to Jerusalem and his sacrifice of love. And so in our lives.Â
There is a song about waiting in line. From the moment of our birth until the day of our death, we are waiting in line. My Father was the first in our family to be born to eternal life. My Mother followed mere months later. Their gift to us was giving their deaths to us.Â
Their gift to us, and we understood it, was living their lives for the Lord and giving their deaths in faith and love, adding to the merits of Jesus for our salvation and theirs. Now half of my siblings have followed as their turn in the line came up.
âThe people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shoneâ¦for there is a child born for us, a son given to usâ (Isaiah 9:1-6).Â
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