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December Devotional

My name is Carol ... and I am a Christmas-aholic! I love everything about the season ... the cooking and the crowds ... the music and the manger ... the bright lights and the busy-ness ... the presents and the packages. All of it just sends my soul into a soaring ecstasy of delight! If there is such a thing as being drunk on Christmas - it is my drug of choice!

For all of us, Christmas is the busiest season of the entire year. There are cards to write and cookies to bake and gifts to buy and parties to attend. At this very moment, my kitchen is a vast expanse of sugar and flour and red sprinkles and half-baked confections. My floor is so sticky that the dog won't even walk on it! And ... there is choir rehearsal here tonight! For 3 hours!! My husband keeps asking me to decide which holiday invitations we are going to accept but I haven't even written on my calendar when my daughters' Christmas concerts are taking place! My mother called to remind me to send out my gifts early to the relatives who live far away because in the past ... I have been known for sending out gifts in January! Or even February!

The city of Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born was a lot like my life is today. Historians tell us that there may have been as many as 2 million visitors swarming the streets of this sacred little town when Joseph and Mary were looking for a room. Can you imagine the cacophony of noise and mayhem ... of pushing and shoving ... and the frustration of it all?

It is always my seasonal goal to prohibit the magic of Christmas to be a distraction from the miraculous. There are miracles everywhere during the Christmas season and I don't want to miss even one divine appointment because of my focus on elves and snow and chestnuts roasting. Remember that harried young mother in the post office line? Or the grouchy sales lady? Or your lonely neighbor who always talks too much? God did not place them in you life to frustrate you ... but so that you could take the joy of Christmas into their dark worlds. The very best gift that you might give this season may not cost you a penny ... but may simply be a smile ... a kind word ... or a listening ear.

Christmas is not about my busyness ... but it is about my decision to make room for the Christ child in my busyness. Has your heart prepared room for Him today?