I’m wondering…when did Thanksgiving and Christmas merge? I’m guilty of allowing it to happen this year too, because I wanted to listen to Christmas songs before Halloween and actually looked forward to seeing the tree decorated in our living room. (I didn’t say I looked forward to decorating it, just seeing it—lol.)
Thanksgiving went by in a blur.
There was the influx of family house guests with their accoutrements: the suitcases, the toys, the dog crates, bags of dog food, and truckload of guns, bows and arrows, boots, and camo clothes.
All part of the fun I’m accustomed to and look forward to every year.
And then something started stirring in my spirit. It began with a casual glance at a church sign announcing their upcoming cantata, “The Coming of God.” I’ve pondered that phrase. Christmas isn’t just about the miraculous birth of a supernatural baby. It’s about the Almighty God coming to this dirty, rebellious world of human beings and becoming one of us!
I didn’t want Christmas to upstage the Thanksgiving season, yet I wanted to start the preparation for the celebration of God’s coming. It’s such a huge concept. I wondered how to convey it to our Littles; in fact, I’m trying to understand it myself.
He who carved the edges of the cosmos curved Himself into a fetal ball in the dark, tethered Himself to the uterine wall of a virgin, and lets His cells divide, light splitting all white. He gave up the heavens that were not even large enough to contain Him and lets Himself be held in a hand. The mystery so large becomes a baby so small, and infinite God becomes infant.
—Ann Voskamp
What will happen this year when our family all comes together to celebrate? Will we begin to grasp the meaning of this miraculous event? Will the gathering together in November to express thanks for our innumerable blessings—a thanksmas—give way this month to the recognition of the ultimate Gift?
Can the blending of the two celebrations become a seamless transition from Thanksmas to Christgiving?