The Gift of a Slower Pace

This time of year is so busy. We have gifts to buy and wrap -let’s not forget wrapping the presents, cookies to bake, a tree to decorate, and parties to plan and about a gazillion other things to get done along with the “normal” routine things. It’s enough to drive a person up a wall. It seems as though even if there were a million hours a day we could not get everything done. We hurry from one thing to the next, and truly enjoy none of it.

I want to offer you a gift, the gift of a slower pace. Especially at Christmas, it’s incredibly easy to get side-tracked. We get in such haste to accomplish everything on a “to do” list a mile long that we lose sight of Christmas and maybe some unexpected blessings because we let ourselves get too busy to notice. We are so busy that we can’t or won’t adjust our schedule to accommodate what might be a blessing.

Thinking back to that very first Christmas, the shepherds, the lowly shepherds, were given the privilege of seeing this miracle. Just for a second, imagine how different it would have been if the shepherds in the fields had decided they were too busy to go to Bethlehem to see this “baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger.” Instead of playing the “busy” card they left the sheep –which incidentally was their livelihood- and “went to see this thing that the angels had told them.” They were among the first to look upon the face of God. What a Blessing! They would have missed a blessing if they had not allowed for interruptions to their schedule. The baby would have been born, but they would not have seen it.

This Christmas, let's throw out the "to do" list, especially if it means being too busy to stop and help someone else, spend time with the family. Let’s allow our schedule to be interrupted in order that we might gain a blessing, even if it’s only the blessing of giving joy to others. Let’s not lose sight of the eternal among the trappings of Christmas. Christmas was God becoming man. It was not about a Christmas tree, or cookies, gifts or any of the things that we often get in such a hurry over at Christmas. These other things are all good, in perspective, but the real blessing is Jesus. This Christmas, slow your pace. Life will continue if you don’t get that last gift, or send a billion cards, or make oodles of cookies. One thing for sure, if we slow down we may find ourselves enjoying Christmas a little more.

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