Libby and I are looking forward to our best Christmas ever this year. Obviously, the way that things have changed in our lives has had a fairly major impact on the way we think about things and plan for them. These changes have also changed how we think about the future, the present and the past, and this has helped and enabled us to look differently on the past, the present and the future!
Past Christmases were often good, but were they the best? One may have been better than all the others, but that is not what we are looking for.
What we are looking for is the best Christmas ever!
That is what we are aiming for this Christmas, the present Christmas – The Best Christmas Ever!
That is how things are actually turning out too. My son, Simon, will be here Christmas Day. My daughter, Lisa, her husband, Alex, second oldest son, Lewis, and the youngest of the family, the beautiful Jemima, will be here Christmas Day. The oldest of the family, my Mum, will be here Christmas Day. And so will Libby and I. This will be the first Christmas we have all been together on Christmas Day.
We plan a day of laughter and love, a day of total gratitude and peace. Not only that, Alex is an excellent cook and he and Lisa are going to take over the kitchen. Feet up for me! It will be the best Christmas ever! It’s going to be a day which is totally different to every other Christmas Day Libby and I have had and a day to be treasured.
But the main thing is that it will be the present Christmas. We won’t be looking back at any other Christmas, because we shall all be in the present one. We won’t be looking forward to any future Christmas either – there will be too much to enjoy in this one!
How about you? What are you hoping for, or expecting? We all have life-changing events and it always seems that Christmas brings those changes into sharp focus, sometimes for the better, sometimes in an emotional onslaught that is difficult to bear. They affect the present Christmas and might affect every Christmas in the future.
But let me ask another question.
What if you approached this Christmas with the possibility that it might be your last, or the possibility that it might be the last one for a member of your family or for a dear friend? Would that change the way you deal with this present Christmas? Forget all the past Christmases and don’t even think of any in the future! What about this one?
How would your priorities change?
Would you still get upset or angry at the things that get in your way, at the people who don’t do what they should do, at the length of the queue, at the TV schedules – at all the unimportant things that somehow or other rise to the top and stop you seeing that wee quirky smile of your friend, that kindness of a total stranger, that sprout on your plate that is giving you the evil eye?
Would you laugh more? Would you say thank you more? Would you help more? Would you be happier?
Would you say, “This is honestly the Best Christmas Ever!”
And it would be the present Christmas – not last year’s and not next year’s. Christmas 2022 – the present Christmas! And it is present in more ways than one. Firstly, yes it is the present in the sense of tense – the here and now, 2022, this year, the only one we have. Secondly, it is present in the sense of a gift – a real Christmas gift, Christmas present. It is a gift which is offered to you, free of charge! A present that you can then share with any number of people with a huge smile on your face and an enormous dollop of love in your heart!
You will know that I am a Christian. You will know that I could easily fill the next two screens with comments about the true meaning of Christmas, about Christianity and all that Christ has done for us. I’m not going to. You can find all that out for yourself, or you can ask me or another Christian if you want.
All I want to do is to encourage you to think differently about Christmas this year. Think that it is perhaps your last Christmas, so that you can make this your best Christmas ever. Encourage others to do the same! Enjoy this Christmas like you have enjoyed no other!
This Christmas might be my last, I simply don’t know. What I do know is that this Christmas will be my Best Christmas Ever! What I also know is that, if this Christmas is not my last, then next Christmas will be my Best Christmas Ever!
What I am absolutely certain of is that I shall never have another non-descript Christmas that comes nowhere close to being the Best.
I hope you feel the same!
I hope your Christmas is your Best Christmas Ever!