The whole family was excited. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
That was the day they always put up their Christmas decorations.
Everyone knew what their specific job was. Dad and Tommy put up the
outdoor decorations. Mom put up the tree and wrapped all of the
presents, and Heather did the rest of the indoor decorating. They all
started early because this was a time consuming job.
When they stopped for lunch dad had the lights halfway around the house,
which was good, but he still had to finish putting the blinking lights
on the bushes and put up the yard displays. Also, he had to put Santa
and his reindeer up on the roof.
Mom was almost finished putting the ornaments on the tree. As far as she
was concerned, all she had left was to put the icicles on it and spray
it with snow. She could hardly wait until she finished, because she
could get all of the presents out of the bedroom closet and start
wrapping them. She sure hoped the kids would like all of the video
games, computer software, and designer clothes she had gotten them, and
that dad liked all of his new tools and hunting and fishing gear. After
all, these things are not cheap. It is a good thing she had all of those
credit cards.
She had to wrap presents for all of their other friends and relatives,
too. She sure hoped everyone spent as much on her family as she had on
theirs, and that they got them something they would like.
Heather was coming along well with her decorating, too. She had the
house all decorated with Santa's, elves, reindeer, candy canes,
stockings and other Christmas items, but she had several boxes left, and
she was rapidly filling up all of the available space.
By late afternoon, everything appeared to be complete. Dad and Tommy had
all of the decorations up and all of the lights were working. Mom had
everything wrapped and under the tree, and there was hardly anywhere to
walk. Now, all that remained was putting the empty boxes that stored the
decorations back in the attic until it was time to put everything away
for another year.
When they started to put the boxes up, they found one box that was still
full. When they opened it, they found a nativity scene. There was Jesus,
Mary and Joseph, shepherds, wise men, and animals. They tried to find a
place for them, but after looking around they decided they had no room
left for it.
They felt bad about it, but they were just out of room. They must have
spent five minutes trying to figure out what to do. Then, someone came
up with the idea to make sure they included the Jesus decorations next
year, but they were afraid they would forget, so they taped a big note
on the top of the box - JESUS, NEXT YEAR. Then, they all felt better.
Do you put Jesus away in the attic until it is convenient to take him
out and display him in your life? Do you give him time in your life
after everything else is over and done with, or do you live each day of
your life for him and trumpet to the world that he is your Lord and Savior?
-- Author Unknown
--Selected from E-Mail Ministry.org.
