I didn’t know when I signed up to post for the Book Bloggers’ Virtual Advent Tour that my Christmas this year would be so mixed. Maybe mixed-up is a better word. I am enjoying the traditional holiday celebrations, and at the same time they move me to tears, sad tears for things that have been lost this year. I am singing the music, and yet I’m tired of the froth of jingling bells and pa-rumpumpum. I have been delighting in the literature of Christmas (see sidebar), and yet literature has lost some of its magic for me this year. I’m having one of those Christmases.

Maybe you are, too. It’s hard to summon up a celebratory spirit when things are not quite right in your family or in your world. If you’re not experiencing it now, you remember that Christmas when Mom was in the hospital or when your son didn’t choose to come home or when the money ran out in November, long before Christmas, or when you just didn’t feel like celebrating. At least not all day long for the entire month of December.

If you’re there or if you know someone who might be, this stop on the Advent Tour is for you. And the tradition I’m spotlighting is a simple one. It doesn’t require any money or holiday spirit or food or new clothes. You just need to sit still and . . . Remember. Take a pen in hand (or a computer keyboard) and remember what it is that makes Christmas special for you, what it is you’re supposed to be celebrating. I remember a lot of reasons to celebrate, even in the midst of some heart-crushing pain. And as I write, I am remembering everything in my life that makes Christmas worth celebrating:

I have a husband who loves me and cares for our family and works hard and loves Jesus.

I have a beautiful home, and my husband has a good job.

I have running water and electricity and even unnecessary toys and gadgets like a computer and internet connection to fill my life with goodness.

My mom is now living with us, and she gives lots of good wisdom to me and to her grandchildren.

My eight children are all physically healthy and growing, and they will all be here for Christmas.

Not only that, but my children are all going to school, either at home or at college. They all have opportunities to learn and to grow mentally in the coming year.

And those same children love me and love each other and want to celebrate Christmas as a family.

My sweet sister and her family are coming for a visit in just a few days.

All of my Christmas shopping is done, and I had money to get some gifts for people that they wanted and some things that they needed. And we’ll still be able to pay our bills in January.

I can read with eyes that work (with glasses), and I can listen to music and to audiobooks with ears that work fairly well.

I have friends who drop everything to help me and listen to my woes anytime, anywhere.

I have a church where salvation through Jesus Christ is preached and where people love and care for one another.

I have had the opportunity and the resources to give to another family in need this Christmas.

But most of all, “I thank God for his gift that words cannot describe.” Even when my family and my life are broken before Him, I remember that He gave himself as a living sacrifice for my sin and my brokenness. And through Christmas and the gift of God in His son, I was healed, I am being healed, and all manner of things will be well.

Deuteronomy 8:7-18
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Christmas is about remembering. Christmas traditions are about remembering. Take some time today to remember who you are, where your family and friends are, and most of all who God is. He is a God who provides, as demonstrated in His provision for the redemption of our shattered world through the most unlikely of sources, a baby boy born in a crowded little town called Bethlehem about 2000 years ago who grew up to be the Saviour of this bittersweet world.

Remember. Merry Christmas!

This post is part of the 2010 Virtual Advent Tour – a fifth year tradition in the book blogging community which allows book bloggers around the world to share their holiday traditions with one another. Visit the 2010 Virtual Advent Tour site for other book blogger’s holiday traditions.