Lakeside Visitor December 2009

There’s something about the last three months of the year that makes people go a little nutty. Aside from my birthday, there’s nothing really exciting about September. But October begins the descent into madness. Even before October 1^st, people are putting up decorations for Halloween and planning that perfect costume. By November 1^st people have shifted to the Thanksgiving preparations but you can tell many hearts are not in it.

Many are already planning their shopping schedules. Women in black ski caps gather in small apartments around a single incandescent light bulb and look at the blue prints of every mall in a 30 mile radius, planning their attack. Men try to deny the inevitable draining of bank accounts that sneaks up on them at the same time every year. They vainly try to apply a “cap” on what should be spent on each person this year. Black Friday has been known to reduce men and women to tears and shove many a respectable individual into the fetal position while nursing a thumb. In the hustle and bustle of Christmas, Thanksgiving comes and goes with little more than a loosening of the belt, the holiday football game, and a tryptophan coma to signal its passing.

It’s hard for me to remember a year when consumerism hasn’t monopolized a saddening portion of an otherwise jolly season. Yet, every year, I get sucked in to the cold sweat frustration of trying to find a gift for the man who has everything. I don’t mean Bill Gates (who never calls me back), of course, but my Dad. From him I learned my thrifty ways but also how frustrating it can be for others when you really can’t think of a thing you’d want or need. I love my Dad, and I love my Mom, but they are absolutely infuriating to shop for. They need nothing, they want nothing they couldn’t go out and get themselves if the inclination struck, and they say nothing to alleviate this senseless stress. I am left to my own devices, and those devices are slow at best.

But moving into this Christmas season I am again reminded of a humbling thought that stretches me. My parent’s selflessness, however annoying at Christmas time, is one of the qualities I seek to emulate in my own life. As Rebeca and I plan for parenthood God gives me the insight to appreciate all that my parents have done for my brother and I in the past, all they continue to give up for us even now, and all I will miss when the holidays cannot geographically bring us together anymore. It’s a strange mix of emotions. I’m sorry I was not more thankful to them when I most depended on them for support. I’m also grateful for lessons that have made me want to show my gratitude by becoming more like them.

My Dad has often said a father hopes his children will do things better than he did. I can’t imagine that but I’ve caught the vision, the possibilities, and I’m running with it. Jesus said those who believe in Him will do greater things than He did (John 14:12). I can’t imagine that, either, but I’m imagining the possibilities. Is it possible to be more like my dad? More like Christ? In our house Christmas was not about all the stuff we got. It was about Christ and being together. We didn’t always “do it” right, but when the excitement over new stuff wore off the changeless Christ was still there, guiding my parents and changing us boys as we watched them.

This Christmas, I encourage you parents to be mindful of how closely your children watch you, and how likely they are to act like you when they get older. We kids are kind of like sponges. We soak up the good and the bad, and chances are both will be magnified in our lives. If it’s in you just a bit, you’re going to see a lot of it in us. How’s that for vision casting?

Cast a vision of Christ this Christmas. Christ desires that we be selfless and giving, and such a lesson is worth learning often! Take a break from sending your kids crippling messages and give them the gift that keeps on giving... a gift that springs up from within and overflows to eternal life later and abundant life now.