We're Still Here ... Really!

If you are reading this, the Mayan Apocalypse has come and gone and we’re still here.  If you are not reading this …

I’d love to just stop there, but in case the world actually does not end on December 21, I still need to get 500 words submitted for next week’s paper before I leave for Christmas travels. By the way, doesn’t Mayan Apocalypse sound like a great new coffee drink?

I read an article yesterday about some people in San Diego, CA who are seriously preparing for December 21.  There are 102 confirmed “preppers” in San Diego.   "People getting prepared for December 21st this year should be prepared for anything, whether it be the end of days, civil unrest, nuclear attack, hurricane, earthquake," said Nikko Sanchez, a  Gulf War veteran and  ex-law enforcement officer. 

All this Mayan calendar stuff reminds me a little of the Y2K hoopla as 1999 drew to a close.  I wrote a Life Matters (back when it was an email sent mostly to my church members) after Y2K came and went and titled it “We’re Still Here.”  I guess we still are.

It seems like something else has come and gone over the past few days.  Now what was that?  Oh, yeah!  It was a little day called Christmas.  If you like hoopla, controversy, unrealistic and unfulfilled expectations, and stress, the Christmas season is the gift that keeps on giving.  It is almost an annual Mayan Apocalypse.  Accusations about “censoring” Christmas … pressure to buy the “perfect” gift … I could go on, but you get the point.

As I am writing this on the morning of December 20, I am sitting in my rocking/writing chair, drinking a cup of Starbucks Christmas blend (Espresso Roast, not Mayan Apocalypse), with only the lights of the Christmas tree and the morning sunrise coming through the picture window on the front of our house.  Two of our grownup chicks are here in the nest with us.  We’ll see the other two tomorrow night.  There is a pile of presents, but they are mostly homemade or came from thrift stores.  Or some little silly something that made us think of one of the kids.  I can’t wait to gather around the tree and sing on Christmas Eve, then gather again on Christmas morning to laugh and love while we open those gifts.  Then I am going to cook Gingerbread pancakes for breakfast.  Later that afternoon, I am going to cook a traditional Christmas dinner of stacked green and red chile enchiladas, black beans and posole.  

Our celebration will be about Jesus because our lives are about Jesus.  We will talk about our blessings.  We will pray together.  No pressure.  No hoopla.  Just gratitude for the grace of God and His constant presence in our lives.

“They will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us.'" (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)

Yeah, we’re still here and our lives still matter to God.