Advent Four - Christmas and Hallmark???

Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent.

We light the candle of love

     If you know me, you know that I love romance.  I'm a huge romantic.  I loved being in love - more than once and every now and then I think maybe I would like to someday be in love again.

     And I love the Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies that are oft-repeated and still really good.

     However, I can't figure out what romance has to do with Christmas.

     Unless the stories focus on family, helping others, traditions, music, children wishing for that special gift or the magic of the Christmas season.

     Well, I really know how it all connects.  I took the PR classes required for my degree in Communications.  I get marketing.

     And as a person who believes strongly in what we celebrate at Christmas, the birth of a baby would grow up and give his life so that we can receive forgiveness for our sins, I get it.  I think the first time I was ever in a Christmas program when I was about 4, I recited John 3:16 -- For God so LOVED the world. . .".

     And I also get it (and appreciate and love) that at Christmas we give gifts.  I still have some of my best gifts.    I've had this snowgirl since Becca was a baby.  That's almost 50 years.  Tray gave me a train in 1997 (something I wanted but never could afford when my children were growing up.  Rich gave me a cross in 1996,

 

     And I still love to give gifts.  By now my grandchidren want gift cards. That's fine except the girls are getting something small so that they feel it's a personal gift.  The boys asked for "THINGS" rather than money.

     When I was doing the research for the last Advent study for our Wonder Women Bible Study I found some examples of sharing God's love. Our first year as a single-family, some dear friends learned that Renee and Tray were praying for a bicycle (unbeknownst to me).  What a joy when they arrived at my door with a bike for each of them.  Becca dreamed of going to the Gator Bowl when her beloved Gators were playing Iowa.  I'll never forget her joy when she opened the tickets for her and her granddaddy. And the year I had totaled my car and needed to buy a new one (not new but still good), my children  handed me back their monetary Christmas gifts to help me with the down payment.

To me, that's the love in Christmas.

     And it's really about loving one another which we do by sharing a gift, something good to eat, a card that says we appreciate and wish someone peace, joy, hope, love.

     That love that was born at Christmas taught us to "Love one another".

     So now that I've given it more thought, I have determined that's what Christmas and Hallmark share.  When we watch those movies, we hopefully see examples of people who love one another.  Predictable??? Yes, but reliable and that's what makes them so good!

.One more special gift - I chose and purchased with a Stein Mart gift card  from the Wonder Women  

May your life be filled with enough Sunshine 

to make you appreciate the Shadow