Where Is My Christmas Spirit?

This is the first Christmas I've ever had with a grandchild.  Woo hoo! Sweet little Paisley Grace arrived in August.  I've been to two "Breakfast with Santa" events, sent a photo Christmas card out with a pic of me, papa, and Paisley Grace wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and shopped for the little angel.  You would think my cup runneth over with Christmas spirit.  But, no, much to my surprise, I have no Christmas spirit this year.

I decorated the tree, baked and ate Christmas cookies, drank eggnog (spiked), and played Christmas carols.  Still, no Christmas spirit.  All my Christmas tasks were done early - shopping, wrapping, mailing.  Is this the problem?  Have I mistaken the adrenalin rush of last minute Christmas pressure for Christmas spirit?  I've really down-sized this Christmas and minimized the materialism of the season.  Have I mistaken materialism and a huge pile of gifts under the tree for Christmas spirit?

What is Christmas spirit anyway?  Since I don't have any this year, I've had to ask this question.  I have rolled this question around and around in my mind like I would roll a jawbreaker round and round in my mouth.  Several times a day I have whined to God, "I don't have any Christmas spirit.  Where is my Christmas spirit?  What is Christmas spirit?  And then I asked God the most dangerous question of all:  "Please, God, show me what Christmas spirit is!"

A day or two after I asked God to show me Christmas spirit, a friend I hadn't seen in awhile stopped by the house.  We knitted, ate take out and talked.  I listened as she poured her heart out about emotional wounds that ocurred over a year ago. 

A day later, another friend whom I hadn't seen in at least 10 years, called and talked about the heartbreak he was experiencing with his teenage daughter. 

On Monday, I had dinner at Bonefish.  I took a scarf I knitted for our favorite waiter, an FSU college student.  Back in November, he had casually asked me if I would knit him a scarf like the one I was wearing.  He said he would pay me for it.  When I gave him the scarf, I wished him a Merry Christmas and told him I didn't want any money for it - consider it a gift for all the times he had taken care of us at dinner.  His reaction blew me away.  He was so grateful.  He showed "his scarf" to all the other wait stuff.  He gave me a huge hug, said he had no place to go for Christmas, and the scarf really touched him.  He didn't think I took him seriously and never expected I would knit him a scarf.  I left Bonefish in tears at the happiness he was experiencing.

Well, God definitely showed me what Christmas spirit is.  My cup (in my case, my wine glass) now is overflowing with Christmas spirit.  I experienced Christmas spirit each time I connected with one of the hurting people God brought to me.

Christmas carols, cookies, gifts, live nativity scenes, family, Christmas Eve services are all wonderful parts of the celebration of Jesus' birth.  But I believe God showed me that Christmas spirit is in the meeting and ministering "heart to hurting heart" in HIS SPIRIT.

Be careful what you ask God for - He always answers, but never in the way we expect Him to. 

I wish all of you a blessed Christmas and new year full of "Christmas Spirit".  And whatever you do, "Dont Blink, or Paisley Grace Will Be Grown".