It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christgiving by Awara Fernandez

I was on the website again.                                                                                                                                     

I needed it.

My soul craved it.

You see, every other year during Thanksgiving week, my family gathers from three different states to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time, a holiday combo platter we call “Christgiving.”  We make reservations back in the early spring, months before the holiday, to guarantee that there will be rooms available for us. And, from time to time, when the waiting stretched long, I would visit that year’s destination website, showing the pictures to our children, pointing out the things we had to look forward to, firing their imaginations, stoking their joy.                                     

“Won’t it be wonderful?” I would sigh, and scrolling through the online images I would find myself filled with longing . . . 

For unhurried time shared with loved ones 
For a beautiful place designed for our enjoyment
For extravagant meals eaten together around the same table
For special activities that herald our holiday 

From these dreams I drew strength, like a deep breath, deep into my soul and returned, refreshed, to the routine of daily living.

And, one day, it hit me.  What if I practiced the same discipline regarding heaven? What if, when I was in need of encouragement, I trained myself to go, and to take our children as well, not to a website, but to The Greatest Travelogue ever written, the one that chronicles our journey from Eden to Everlasting?  What if I flipped through the pages of that book and let my imagination be fired with the images contained there?

Of unhurried time shared with loved ones . . .  

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”  John 5:24

Of a beautiful place designed for our enjoyment . . . 

“There are many rooms in my Father’s house, . . . and I am going there to prepare a place for you.”   John 14:2

Of meals eaten together around the same table . . . 

“Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world - a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine.” Isaiah 25:6

Of special activities that will herald our holiday from the Curse . . . 

“For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth . .  . [The nations] shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  Isaiah 65: 17, and 2:4

I love our Christgiving holiday. Except for one thing. It always comes to an end.  We return to our separate homes and tables where empty spaces echo with the absence of loved ones.  We return to the stuttering rhythms of life under the shadow of ruin.  

And, there I go again.

How I need it.

My soul craves it.

“Won’t it be wonderful?” I sigh as I wait to hear these words for the final time,

“The term is over: the holidays have begun!”*

@Awara Fernández    

*”The Last Battle,” C. S. Lewis

Awara lives in Georgia with her husband of 33 years and their rescue dog, Gonzo.  They have 6 children and 7 grandchildren.