We’re only two days into the new year, and already we’ve gone from shorts weather to snow and sleet. We probably came a few degrees shy of reaching all four seasons in 48 hours. On top of that, there were severe storm warnings yesterday afternoon. Basically, it was a typical Tennessee weather weekend.

I’ve become jaded to all the extreme temperature changes. Dropping 40 degrees in one day? Bring it on. From sandals to snow in 24 hours? What else you got? At this point, an ice storm in July wouldn’t faze me.

Imagine if you live in a place like San Diego where it’s a constant 72 all year round. All that boring perfect weather. No wonder everybody’s moving to Middle Tennessee. Predictable weather is as passé as parachute pants. Besides, it’s fun not knowing whether you need to put out a winter coat and lined jeans or a t-shirt and flip flops to wear in the morning.

If it actually does snow? That’s when the wacky frivolity really begins. People around here don’t know what to do with snow. Everything shuts down when there’s a 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. That’s probably for the best, since almost no one knows how to drive in the rain, much less in snow and ice.

My favorite part is that if you don’t like the current weather, just wait around for a day or two. It’ll change.

Well, I did something unexpected recently. I got a record player (or as the cool kids call it, a turntable).

It was a Christmas present that I asked for and only halfway expected to receive. Still, it will be an interesting and fun journey as I rediscover all things vinyl.

First of all, I am absolutely not an audiophile. I don’t necessarily think everything sounds better on vinyl. Second, despite all that I’ve said up to this point, I call them records. I’m not hipster enough to call them vinyl out loud.

But there is something transcendent about dropping that needle on to the record and and hearing that telltale crackly sound, almost like logs burning on a fire. You have to be more deliberate about selecting a song or an album. It’s not like going to Spotify and listening to an artist on random. You pretty much have to listen to the albums in their original order.

Also, there’s a certain joy in holding opening up the sleeve and pulling the record out of its jacket. You can feel those tiny grooves that the needle on the record player will turn into glorious sounds coming out of your speakers.

I had a record player a long, long time ago. It was long enough ago that I can’t even begin to remember what kind it was. All I know was that’s how my introduction to and love for music began. And since I’m old school, it only makes sense to go old school musically now and then.

“Have you ever missed an opportunity because of one decision? Have you ever lived with questions wondering how different the outcome would have been? Have you ever lived with a measure of regret over the road not traveled? Did you make a decision like this in 2020? The good news is, God has ways of making it work out for good, even if our decision was bad at the time. Romans8v28″

I stole this quote from someone on social media about 9 years ago. I updated it to make it work for the current year and situation. They key to a happy new year is knowing God has ways of working all things — including pandemics and natural disasters and bad decisions — for good.

My hope isn’t contingent on the absence of Coronavirus or political strife or famines or wars or storms or anything like that. My hope isn’t predicated on me or those around me making better choices. My Bible tells me that in this world, I can expect trouble, but it also tells me that Jesus has already overcome all of that. So my hope doesn’t rest on getting the “right” politicians elected or the “right” laws passed. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and His blood and His righteousness and His finished work on the cross. Nothing less. Nothing more.

That makes a whole lot of sense. It seems to me that your perspective determines how you see things. Sometimes, it determines what you see as well. If you only focus on the negative, what’s wrong with the world, and how people in general are bad, then you will see only what’s negative, wrong, and bad. But if you choose to look for the good, you will often find it.

It’s easy to write 2021 off as another year lost to the never-ending pandemic, but you can also see it through the framework of blessings if that’s what you choose to focus on and seek out for others and yourself.

Plus, I’ve noticed that sometimes singing helps me not to pay as much attention to my sore feet.

I don’t know what it is about colder weather that makes me sleepy, but lately, I am in perpetual need of a nap. Of course, it could be that it gets dark at 3 pm. Or it could be the grey rainy days we’ve been having of late.

I sincerely regret all the naps I skipped or pretended to take when I was little. I wish I could have those back. Or I wish I could have rollover nap minutes from all that sleep I missed out on back when. These days, all I need is a comfy chair and I get sleepy. I must be getting old or something.

My favorite days are those where I don’t have to be anywhere super early and I can turn off the alarm and sleep until whenever I feel like waking up. Lately, that tends to be around 9 am, as opposed to sleeping in until noon like I probably did when I was a teenager. But I still love that moment when I wake up at 5 am and realize that it’s Saturday and then promptly roll over and go back to sleep.

So seriously, when does that hibernating thing start? ‘Cause I am all over that.

That’s one of my new favorite Christmas quotes. It blows my mind that the God who is bigger than creation itself, who spoke that very creation into existence, became as small and helpless as an infant. The God who exists outside of time — who created time — stepped into time and was wrapped snugly in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger where animals fed.

The same God who became small is bigger than anything you or I will ever face. He’s bigger than the people who hurt us or the jobs that stress us out or the tragedy that takes our loved ones away from us. God is big enough and strong enough to hold our whole world together. The very word glory has the connotation of weightiness, as in God is able to keep all the pieces of our lives from flying apart and keep them in orbit. He’s able to get us through the valley of the shadow of death.

He is God, and He’s here to stay.

“Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying… But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior” (Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak).

It’s easy to make Christmas an event. You spend roughly a month or so getting everything just right, buying all the presents, decorating the house up, wearing all the festive clothes, and then bam! it’s over. All that frantic activity for one day. Then there’s the post-Christmas letdown.

But if Christmas becomes a state of mind — keeping in your mind’s eye the picture of the holy infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger, surrounded by Joseph and Mary and shepherds — then the joy can stay after the presents are put away and the decorations go back in the box and the festive attire returns to the back of your closet. You can conjure up warm memories of Advent and Christmas at any point of the year and not just in December.

I admit that I have OCD — Obsessive Christmas Disorder. I love the season of Christmas maybe a little too much. That’s why I tend to go overboard on the ornaments and the shirts and the sweaters and everything else Santa and Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls. I have a dream where I own a big enough house where I can have a dedicated Christmas room with the tree still lit and decorated where I can go when I need a break from the world.

But if I keep the spirit of Christmas, I don’t have to wait another 364 more days to experience the joy. I can carry it with me all through the year.

Yes, it’s a thing. Apparently, in many countries, today is when people give of their surplus to those who are less fortunate, putting it in boxes (hence, the name). Imagine my surprise when I found out it had nothing at all to do with Evander Holyfield or Muhammad Ali or any other of the boxing greats. In fact, there is little to no actual boxing on Boxing Day.

Honestly, I get confused quite a bit during the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I’m never quite sure what the day or date is. And yes, there is often a lot of cheese consumption during that week or so. It doesn’t help that I’ll be going back to work after a week of stay-cation, so I’ll also be mixed up on my sleeping patterns for a bit.

But my theme and my mantra continues to be thankfulness and gratitude. I give thanks on days when I feel like it and on days when I feel like anything but thankful. Gratitude should be a habit in the life of God’s people because it keeps us honest about God’s goodness to us and our dependence on Him. It reminds us that we really have been given so much that we routinely take for granted when we choose to see what we lack instead of what we have.

So this coming week, I will be full of gratitude. And cheese.

“Let Your goodness Lord appear to us, that we
made in your image, conform ourselves to it.
In our own strength
we cannot imitate Your majesty, power, and wonder
nor is it fitting for us to try.
But Your mercy reaches from the heavens
through the clouds to the earth below.
You have come to us as a small child,
but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts,
the gift of eternal love
Caress us with Your tiny hands,
embrace us with Your tiny arms
and pierce our hearts with Your soft, sweet cries”St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).

“Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved” (Augusta E. Rundel).

When I was little, it seemed like it took forever for Christmas to arrive. I remember that December almost felt like torture because it moved so slowly while I waited for that glorious day when I could unwrap all my presents and finally get to see what Santa brought me.

Now, it flies by. Maybe that means that I’m getting older, but these days I can hardly process the season of Advent before it’s over. I always get a little sad thinking about Christmas ending and having a whole year to wait for the next one.

This year, I want to keep the spirit of Christmas past December 25. I want to honor that child in the manger who became the Savior of the world. I want to not let the season go back into the boxes and get put back in the attic.

Who knows? Perhaps I’ll watch Christmas movies on the 25th day of every month. Maybe I’ll keep out a decoration or two for when I need a nostalgia fix. Or maybe I’ll simply live the joy of Christmas for the next 11 months until the season rolls back around again, remembering that the Emmanuel who came to us that day doesn’t just live in the hearts of men and women one day a year, but in all the days of the year.

“O God, who hast caused this holy night to shine with the illumination of the true Light: Grant us, we beseech thee, that as we have known the mystery of that Light upon earth, so may we also perfectly enjoy him in heaven; where with thee and the Holy Spirit he liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting.”

It may be a cliche, but I think it’s true. The older you get, the less Christmas becomes about the presents and more about the presence. I’m always up for receiving a gift, but I think these days I get more excited about seeing other people’s faces light up when they open a gift that is especially meaningful. I still love that my nephews and niece are still young enough to have that gleam in their eye when it comes to presents.

Mostly, I love that we were all together in one place, celebrating the birth of the Messiah. I also got to see a video of extended family also celebrating the season with joy. If I’m honest when I look back, I can’t tell you what gifts I got five years ago, but I can tell you who was there. I may not remember how many presents I unwrapped, but I can just about close my eyes and call to mind all the faces from that Christmas Eve.

So I know that my heart is full, whether or not I get everything that was on my list. It’s been a great Christmas.