Just Joy Ministries

Pulling out Christmas decorations is always a walk down memory lane for me.  It is an experience that is so rich in nostalgia and God’s blessings that I keep a large box of tissue handy for my runny nose and tear-drenched cheeks.

The decorations meant for the Christmas tree are the beginning of the sweet experience for me.  I have a little plastic elf dressed in green and white flannel that was on my mother’s Christmas tree when she was a child.  Though it has traveled through time from the years just prior to WWII unto my 21st. Century Christmas tree, he hasn’t lost his infectious grin or his jaunty cap.  I think of the 4 generations of little hands that have placed this mischievous, small man upon other Christmas trees in other homes and my heart smiles back at him.

I have 5 Christmas ornaments with the precious words, “Baby’s First Christmas” written upon them.  There is an old-fashioned buggy in which slumbers a baby marked with the never-to-be-forgotten year of 1981 ... the year my miraculous journey into motherhood began. How can the baby that slept in this buggy now be 30 years old and a man of God filled with passion and purpose?! Then there is the red and gold drum that announced the birth of another baby in 1983 ... this particular baby has grown into an anointed song-writer and worship leader.  The “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament from 1988 is a teddy bear sitting on a Christmas rocking horse ... the sweet baby boy born that year now has a sweet baby boy of his very own.  The  precious ornament from 1991 broke McLeod family tradition because it announced not a boy ... but a girl!  A miraculous little girl who filled our lives with music, dolls and joy!  And the final ornament that reminds us of the blessing of God is from 1994 ... another little girl who has wrapped us all around her feminine finger!

The garland winding down the front staircase and across our fireplace mantle was a hand-me-down treasure from Craig’s parents when they closed their gift shop over 10 years ago.  Who knew that the greenery would last through 4 more homes and more than a decade of Christmases?!  Oh ... if this greenery could only talk!

Perhaps my favorite piece of Christmas nostalgia is a pewter plate that rests gently on our dining room hutch.  It is not marked with a year but with a message that simply says, “Christmas Morning ... May All Your Dreams Come True.”  On the center of the plate is etched a picture of a group of children coming down a garland-laced stairway in their pajamas.  Craig’s parents gave this plate to me the Christmas of 1988 ... the year that Jordan was born after losing 5 babies over the past 4 years.  I remember when Craig’s mom watched me unwrap this plate on December 25, 1988, that she said to me, “These are the happiest Christmases of your life.”

My dreams certainly have come true: I have been given the privilege of raising and praying for 5 children.  I have loved the man of my dreams for over 3 decades.  I have been given the life-changing challenge of serving God in seasons rich with blessing and abundance ... and in days that were too dark to navigate without His presence.

My prayer is that you will discover the blessing and purposes of God during the Christmas season of 2011 ... that you will look not at what you don’t have but that you will focus on Who He is!  That you, like me, will see the constant hand of God upon your life during every day of every year.

From my heart to yours ... Merry, Merry Christmas!