Saturday, December 12, 2009

Saturday, December 12, 2009: "Mary" Christmas

The song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" was playing the other day. I found myself singing along . . . "have yourself a merry little Christmas - let your heart be light - from now on our troubles will be out of sight". I bitterly thought . . . our troubles will be out of sight? Ha! They are right her smack dab in front of me and not going anywhere anytime soon (can you tell it was a bad day?).

I was also wondering how it was possible that although I couldn't remember appointments on the calendar, phone calls I needed to return and things I needed to get done, somehow I was able to remember all the words to these old Christmas songs! That's another story though.

I've been busy lately with the "gotta find the perfect gift for the kids, hurry up and get the cards mailed out, get all the parties planned and on and on". I found myself in the toy aisle at a store yesterday just watching parents just walking around with a blank look on their face trying to decide on the perfect gift for their child.

I was pretty depressed on my way home and the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas popped in my mind. Instead of hearing the promises that our troubles are going to miles away I focused on two words. Merry Christmas. However, the "merry" I was thinking about was actually "Mary". Have a "Mary" Christmas. I have been having a "Martha" Christmas! I've been obsessed with do, do, do and go, go, go and have not spent any time just sitting at Jesus' feet like Mary did. I haven't focused in on the true meaning of Christmas.

I initially felt guilty but could almost hear God saying "it's not too late, you can still have a Mary Christmas". I still need to keep my Martha hat on because there are parties to plan, cards to mail, gifts to buy and all that good stuff that needs to be done. I am going to make a point of putting the Mary hat on along with the Martha hat though. And sometimes I need to just be Mary. This year I am going to have a very, Mary Christmas.