What Triggers Gladness

The kids decorated the tree with their ornaments not too long ago….even sneaking a few of their favorites from their parents’ own stash of Christmas baubles. 

And so, for many days, two Christmas tubs sat along the wall of our bedroom.  Add to that the stacks of packages arriving from relatives, and it more than looked (and still looks) like we are ready to move out.  Boxes, boxes, boxes. 

(It’s not really that bad, but it is often so fun to exaggerate!)

So, in order to make my very neat and wonderful husband a tad less queasy to his very organized tummy, I finally went through our treasure trove of ornaments. 

Our tree, already heavy-laden with the kids’ décor, did not offer much room for the parents’ things (I just added all of our children’s years together, and there is no wonder there is so little room on our tree….there is, without D’s and my ornaments, 35 collective years worth already!), but we wedged what we could into any space we could find. 

As we unwrapped ornaments and laid them out on the table we couldn’t help but count our blessings. 

We remembered the friendships from childhood, the new steady friendships formed our first year of marriage, the labor of love from our own parents and siblings, Not all of the ornaments are pretty.  Some of them are downright ugly…and smudged…and dirty from little hands, grown big now, holding them every Christmas.  Oh!!  All those lovely memories associated with different ornaments. 

I love this part of Christmas.  It draws my heart and thoughts nearer to God and nearer to those who have meant so much, at one time or another, and the memory of those family and friends is still precious and encouraging and meaningful.  Because of their love for us, the memory that these ornaments evoked, still teach us about God’s wonderful grace, His desire to give us good things, to be with us every step of the way, to decorate our life with love, laughter and meaningful joy and wisdom.