Childhood Christmas Memories

I am blessed to have wonderful and vivid memories of Christmastime as a young child. One memory is running around our front yard with an older brother on Christmas Eve until exhausted so as to ensure that I went to sleep early because Santa would not visit our house, I was told, until I was asleep. Another memory is anxiously sitting on the stairs with all my older siblings every Christmas morning, waiting for our parents to call us down to see what Santa had left us under the tree. My mother, who grew up in abject poverty, loved to make Christmas special, lavishing us with what I thought at the time to be the most extravagant gifts. (A Cocker Spaniel puppy one year and a go-kart that I shared with my brother on another year were more than I could have ever wished for.) My mother (you can tell I still miss her) also loved to prepare a Christmas feast on our finest dinnerware—ham and turkey, dressing, homemade yeast rolls, and ambrosia made from fresh coconuts, oranges, and pineapples. It was a feast fit for royalty, I always believed.

Don’t you wish you could recapture that pure and total joy of a child at Christmastime?

Jesus tells us, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15). In this passage, Jesus is telling us that if we want to experience His kingdom now and forever, we must have a childlike heart, filled with faith, joy, wonder, humility, and dependence on our heavenly Father.

In this Advent season, we are reminded of the long-awaited coming of Jesus, the Christ, as a baby in the manger, and we earnestly look forward to his return as the King of kings. My prayer for you and for me is that we experience this season of Advent as a child: with wonder as we approach the mystery of the incarnation; with true joy, which will bring forth hope; with unbridled eagerness to celebrate his humble birth into this world and his triumphant return; and with pure faith, love, and dependence upon Him, our Creator and Savior. May we trust in Him so we may eagerly await his return when we will sit at that grand banquet table with Him and all the saints and enjoy a feast beyond measure—ambrosia and all.

Peace, joy, and Merry Christmas,

Carter