"Marry" Christmas

While I am certainly not above them, I have the blessing/curse of seeing misspellings, homonym errors, and punctuation problems. This can be either a good or bad thing.  It is certainly good when proofing papers. However, it can be a drawback when I read wishes from old friends of "Marry Christmas" and cannot move beyond the first word.  Sometimes I like to think about word-misuses as intentional, especially in cases such as these.  So I asked myself, "What could it mean to 'marry Christmas?'"

For the past several years, I have had difficulty getting in the Christmas spirit.  The first year, I blamed this on the fact I was in college full-time and no one can possibly feel Christmassy over homework and finals (well, maybe one or two people can). The next year was the first Christmas since my Grandpa's death, I was busy house-sitting up until the day before Christmas Eve, and I was in college after a personally rough semester. This year was little better despite my hope for feeling the Christmas magic again.  I had little external distraction and could dedicate myself to Christmas stuff as much as I desired.  And yet, I was still surprised when I realized Christmas was only a few days away.  I just didn't feel it.

After contemplating my lack of Christmas spirit, I returned to thinking about the commanding message I received.  How could it apply to my life? Why did I feel my Christmas happiness was so contingent on my environment?  Isn't the true reason for the season alive in my heart?  Perhaps the way to marry Christmas is to devote--dedicate--fully to the meaning of Christmas.  The love of God.  God sent His Son, Christ, to be our Savior.  The glory of this moment, a true celebration of it, should work from the inside out into our environment.  My Christmas tree, the decorations outside, presents, or even my nativity will not provide a Christmas spirit.  I need to feel the joy in my heart first.  Marry myself to feeling and spreading the awesomeness of God and His gift to us.

Perhaps the misspellings were not misspellings after all.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  And best wishes for the new year.