Life’s Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
~ Benjamin Franklin
December has always been my favorite month of year and on the 20th, it will be my 54th December. It is also a very emotional time of year, for the people I spent my childhood years with, are no longer with me. I remember our family gathering for Thanksgiving and Christmas as some of the happiest times of my life, My Mother, Father, Uncle Ed and Aunt Mary shared many happy times together playing games, sharing gifts, and having fun together.
December is also a month full of birthdays in our family. Along with my birthday, my sister was born on December 17th, my daughter on December 10th, and my daughter in-law on December 5th, and I would like to wish them all a very Happy Birthday.
Memories
Have you ever seen the movie “A Christmas Story” about the boy, Ralphie Parker growing up in a small town and wanting an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model BB rifle with a compass in the stock?
I know that this movie is supposed to be set in a northern Indiana town in the 40’s but from what I remember about the 50’s and the town where I grew up they could be the same time and town. I can still remember traveling in the snow in search of the perfect Christmas tree and my Dad haggling about the price.
Also if you remember Ralphie’s younger brother Randy from the movie and how his mother dressed him, that was me. My Mom dressed me just like that right down to the hat, coat, scarf, leggings, and boots. I looked like “a tick about to pop.” I can look back now and see this as something funny but at the time…well?
I hope that my children would say that my wife and I did a good job with their memories because we were both just children ourselves when they were young. We were married at 18 and I worked very hard to give them memories like the ones I had as a child. Looking back, I know that I probably could have done a better job, but they are both functioning adults now so it could not have been too bad.
Advent and Christmas
December is also a time for reflection on the past year and looking forward to the joys of Christmas. Many people don’t realize that Christmas doesn’t begin until December 25th. They decorate their trees the day after Thanksgiving even before the beginning of Advent; then on the day after Christmas the decorations and tree come down and put back in storage for next year.
For those that are unaware, Christmas begins on December 25th and lasts until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). The problem is that Christmas has become so commercialized that most people are celebrating Christmas during Advent. Advent is a time…
…to explore our inward health, to examine our motives, to honestly assess our hearts and open them to the Lord’s purifying. Advent is a season of preparation, a time to make ready, a time for repentance, which really is nothing more than honest awareness of our lives. What are our priorities? What has gained our time? What have we ignored or forgotten? What is our current experience of God and how is that being invited to expand? Are there changes that we need to make?
The Rev. Robert C. Wisnewski, Jr., Rector
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Montgomery, Alabama
What preparations will you make during this Advent? Will you be ready?
