It’s officially the holiday season. Pardon, the Christmas season. It’s Thanksgiving night and my mom, sister and I are watching Home Alone. For as many years as I can recall now, that’s how my family has spent Thanksgiving night. With full stomachs from delicious food earlier in the day, we always settled down in the living room to watch one of our favorite Christmas movies. I’ve always treasured this tradition. The only year I can remember missing it was last year when dad was in the hospital. We had planned on watching it whenever he got home from the hospital since we couldn’t be at home together on Thanksgiving. But he never came home.
And so here we are. It’s the night of Thanksgiving one year later. Our first without dad. I expected this day to be difficult and in some ways it has been. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be thanks to the love shown to us by our friends. Instead of spending the day crying like I did last year when dad was in the hospital, I smiled and I laughed through the afternoon spent with friends. And now we’re continuing the tradition of watching Home Alone just like dad would have wanted.
I’ve always liked the song “Somewhere In My Memory” from the movie’s soundtrack but never truly appreciated its meaning until I heard it tonight.
“Somewhere in my memory
Christmas joys all around me
Living in my memory
All of the music, all of the magic
All of the family, home here with me.”
Living in my memory...All of the family, home here with me. Dad lives in my memory now. Yes, I know that he actually lives in heaven with the Lord and I take great comfort in that. But for my finite mind, it feels more like he just lives in my memory. And I worry sometimes that the joys and the magic of the Christmas season will have disappeared with him, only to live in my memory. There are certainly specific elements of that joy that left with him. The joy of laughing together when first hearing Marv and Harry’s theme play in the movie. The magic of watching the snow fall together during the first big storm of the year and using the same yard stick to measure the accumulation on the front steps each hour. But today showed me that not all of the joy and magic will have disappeared.
Praise be to God for His lovingkindness towards me in bringing wonderful friends into my life. We don’t have plans yet for Christmas and I expect it won’t be an easy day. But I know that my family will be supported in prayer by our loving friends. If I can’t find the magic and joy myself, I can trust they’ll come alongside me to share the magic and joy they’ve found in the season with me. And that, my friends, is why God gave us the family of God. Never underestimate the great work God can do through His people.
I need to remind myself, too, that the real magic and joy of the Christmas season is found in remembering how Jesus came to earth as a baby with the ultimate plan of dying on the cross to save His people from their sins. To save me. To save my dad. To give us the incredible gift of a relationship with Himself and the promise of an eternity spent praising Him with the utmost joy. My dad has already started that eternity of praise. And I have the joy of knowing I will join him some day. What better reason could there be to be thankful today? Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Let the magic and joy of the Christmas season begin!