Merry Crack-mas

We were driving down the road, and there it was, a great big blinking sign, "Holiday Time in the Park" or something like that. So my youngest son starts bouncing up and down in his seat yelling "we have to go! PLEASE Mom PLEASE!" "Sounds like a fun time" I say. We'll see. I check the clock, 4:30, the neighborhood kids will be out and about still, but I HAVE to go home to change the baby, take some Advil, and recoop before I attempt something like that. I grab my laptop to find out what the "Holiday" party will be like. Games and refreshments, face painting, horse rides. Just bring canned food. I go to the pantry, only a couple dented cans of peas, yuck! "I should just throw those out" I think. So I grab the canned fruit and bag it. Out the door we go.

I call my husband, give him a heads up, and an hour later we are all standing in front of the traffic police waiting to cross the busy road to the festivities. Someone doesn't see the police officer swinging his lighted baton madly in the air for him to stop, and he gets in trouble! This is horrible, but inside, I thought it was neat to see the police officer reprimand a grown man like a child. (I know it's sick, just being honest)

So we're safely across the road, and into the madness we go. People were swarming around the gazebo. We fight through the crowd and end up at the little craft table with home made goods from the seniors for charity. Not what I'm looking for, I don't even have a dollar on me. We want the free refreshments, because hubby hasn't eaten, and I am trying to keep the peace. We turn around on the VERY narrow side walk and make our way back the way we came to find the red food coloring-laced punch, and cookies. So we hand over our canned goods in exchange for the poison and sugar. (OK OK over exaggerating here) Cookies and punch in hand, and our arms pasted to our sides like Barney, we start to manoeuvre our way back through the crowd.

Santa Baby is playing through the speakers. People are running around, trees all through the park are lit and beautiful. Kids have glow sticks and balloon animals. Plenty of people are lined up at every food stand, ready to pay four times what the food is worth, (I almost paid $4 for a rice crispy treat, but I put my $5 back in my pocket and bought something I needed later) There had to be over fifty people lined up for the horse ride. It is about this time that Leader "Such 'n Such" gets up to tell everyone who put the whole thing together, and people applause. The "big" tree is lit, and everyone cheers. I am looking around to find which tree, EVERY tree in the park was covered in lights!

Then a few minutes later the horrifying sound of a VERY slow-moving, screaming fire truck splits through the laughter of the children, and pierces my eardrums. Over the intercom, "Who could this be folks, but the one and only, "Santa Clause"! Line up kids, for your chance to see Santa. I felt like an alien. What were we doing there? We didn't belong. It is at this moment that I realize there is not one mention of the Saviour, Jesus any where in this place. My heart is heavy now, and all I want to do is get my family back home. My kids are sorely disappointed! There is no more face painting, they ran out of balloons for the balloon animals, and there really was nothing planned for the kids. So we go back to the police crossing, and there is traffic flying and no police officer to be found. We finally make it back across the street and head home.

I have to go out to the store after all that, and I'm kind of glad to, just to have a small break. So I drop the family off, and head back out to "Buy-Some-Holiday Cheer-Land". I decide to leave the radio off, the noise does not suit my mood tonight. I need to feel the peace of God.

I get out, smile at the bell-ringer, and ask about her day, she is cold, and on to the buggies I go. I pick up some Advil for my aches and pains, and go to the school supplies and craft area, my favorite! I pick up some paper, and I'm about to be on my way, when a young guy asks me for a quarter, "I gave mine to the lady out front, I'm sorry" (This isn't actually true, I DID give my last two quarters to the lady out front, of Michaels, not Walmart)

I decide I need to leave. For some reason, I'm teetering on the edge of tears this night. I go to the garden center to check out. I am behind three other people. All women, all three have cell phones attached to their ears. None interacting with the others.

The stuffiness of all the decorations and garb, threatens further burden my soul. I look at the young lady in front of me. She is holding a small collection of tree trimmings. Meek though they are, I imagine what her heart is feeling right at that moment. Pride in knowing that she will go home, and have her very own tree. I thought back to my first year as a young bride, our sweet little tree, in our one bedroom apartment. It was very special to me. My heart warmed toward this young girl. I silently prayed for her. The cashier was so kind and happy. Ahh finally, a joyful soul.

I walked out of Walmart, smiled at the lady guarding the door, and told her to have a good night. I pass two ladies loading their car. One is telling the other (in a very loud rude voice) about her husband telling her to "stretch the Christmas and grocery money" and how "she ain't stretchin' nothin', he'd better find a way to get some more **** money!" My heart just broke. I don't know their situation, but it is an example of every sitcom marriage, and sadly most (maybe not all to that extreme) in our society, that displays the blatant disrespect women have for their husbands, their children's father. Men have no leadership in their homes any more. How can they be expected to lead spiritually, when we are fed this garbage-model, from every show that airs. And ladies, we laugh at it, and buy into it. Of course it's funny, or they wouldn't hook us on it! The bible does warn us against "coarse jesting". I have to remind myself that I am not immune to absorbing some of it, for future use. What we put into our hearts and minds, will come out some time later.

I spoke to the poor guy struggling under the weight of fifty plus buggies, and decided that the reason Christmas is broken, is because this world is broken. If we are too afraid to even smile at each other in the grocery line, and hide behind the very small shelter of our cell phones and refuse to even make eye contact with any one, how will joy of our Saviour spread through our nation? We use these tiny devices as a shield to ward off any human contact that might occur.

We can boast, every service we go to, and all the things we are involved in, to help our kids understand that Christ is the reason we have Christmas, but we are one force in their lives, against a million more that are now, and are to come. Remember, there are other people and other children we need to help to get their minds wrapped around this wonderful thing God has for them.
We MUST step out side of ourselves friends, and become the movement the Lord intended us to be.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. God's blessings to you.