Stephanie and I drove over with the kids after church on Sunday night to Mom’s and Dad’s. This year, for me, has been the best I can remember in terms of enjoying the Christmas season. It has been laid back for me but not for my wife, who is the primary shopper in our house, but I will admit that shopping is not my forte.
I was driving down the interstate, and begin to think back to the times that we would make the trip from Dothan to Opp and Andalusia to see Granny Harrelson and Grandmother Danford.
There are remarkable things that I remember about those occasions. I am frankly surprised that I don’t recall the gifts that I received, or many of them at all. However, I do remember the dumplings that Grandmother Danford made, along with her sweet tea, and banana pudding(if it is not cooked, it is not truly banana pudding).
Granny Harrelson lived the most distant of the two, and we would trek over to her house. It was a place where a little boys’ memory was given a holiday. She cooked on a wood burning stove, even though she had an electric one. The house, very modest by our standards, was heated by the fireplace that always seemed to be blazing out. We would dig out the Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, and build a village. Granny was building something much grander.
Outside was the barn, the fruit house, the smokehouse and the wash house. But just beyond those was the small prayer house that was a daily visiting place of Grannies on a daily basis. She met with her best friend everyday. I was a bit young to really understand, and yet I could feel something cosmic going on in that little sanctuary.
I suppose that I could overdo the sentimental aspect of this. . .but there is a strong connection of that little prayer house to the generations that have followed. While the Christmas celebrations were modest in gifts that we could see, there is nothing modest of the huge gifts that were transmitted spiritually.
She gathered with the Christ child daily, and what she lacked in physical gifts, the better gift was that of a spiritual foundation that helped establish the family.
She was a slight little woman, who would never make it on the lists of those who are influential. Yet she seemed to have a much stronger connection of influence than those fleeting influences that we make here in this world. It does seem that some of the greatest gifts come in small packages.
Don’t overlook the gifts that are small in size, yet great in import. Often those nondescript, packages that are placed in the most unobvious places are those that will have the greatest impact in your life. After all, a manger is not the place we look for a Messiah most often. They are often hidden not by the blazing lights of a stadium, but much more often by the soft candle light of a stable.
Have a very blessed Christmas.
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