It is now the 24th day of December, the day known as Christmas Eve.
I may sometimes come across as anti-religious but I am far from it. I am very much against the money-collecting approach of what seems these days to be the key to all churches. That is something I will go into at some length in another entry.
I am actually a very personally religious person as I have developed along those lines over a lifetime- my lifetime. I have no answers, really, just a firm belief, from both a scientific and faithful perspective, that there is a higher power, that there is something beyond what we know here. I just couldn’t tell you with any certainty what or who that is.
I do believe in Jesus, I know that He lived. It is said that He came to earth to save us- I’ll likewise reserve commentary on that because, again, I am just not smart enough to know. Are you?
How many Eves of Christmas have I now been through? Let’s see, um, a ton it seems. Many are memorable, many have sadly, too easily, faded.
When I was a kid I don’t really recall what we used to do then on this Eve. I want to say we set up our tree that late but I’m sure that is just an inaccurate memory of mine. I’m pretty sure we got into bed early and, like most kids who celebrate the day, we were so excited for the next day to arrive.
When I got into high school and we moved in with my grandmother we began to celebrate on Christmas Eve as we were getting older and started to come back to the house rather than living in it. This went on beyond then and into my twenties and then sort of splintered after that as my family did likewise.
When I got married and we had our own kids we went back to celebrating on Christmas morning except when visiting with my still-around sister and her family. We are still doing the same and will do so tomorrow with our beautiful children.
We will go to church today. We go once or twice a year now and go to different Lutheran churches- I haven’t been to a Catholic mass probably in about twenty years. It is important to my sons that we do this, today. They seem to want to learn, they seem to really want to believe. So do I, still.
It is below zero out there this morning and I have to go shovel snow, again. An early and hard winter this year all you warming folks. Oh yeah, it’s now called just change. Hope and change I believe.
I need to finish wrapping presents today and spend time with my kids. Will we track Santa on NORAD tonight? Sure, why not. One of the traditions.
It looks like Christmas out there and, in a few minutes, I’m sure it will feel like it as well. Probably more like it a several hundred miles to the north. Sometimes I miss Florida.
So Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it, whenever and however you celebrate it. I hope that you believe, I hope that your faith is strong enough to always see you through.
I do believe in God and I hope that He does bless you and your family and all those who are important to you in your lives. I have high hopes for the future for me, for us, for you, for everyone in our country. It is time America. God bless you America and all that you have been, all that you stand for, and all that you can still become. It is a time when you need us rather than the other way around. It is time Americans.
Merry Christmas to everyone.