AnaBirthMasGiving

Two sides of the family. Two major travel holidays. Celebration should be simple math. Travel to one set of grandparents for one holiday. Travel to second set of grandparents for the second holiday. Rotate holidays annually. This is simple math.

In reality the Holidays require higher math celebration. They are multi-purpose. We traveled early to my parents for Thanksgiving because we needed to return before the weekend. While at my folks, we celebrated Thanksgiving in the morning, Christmas that night, my mother'’s birthday on Friday and threw in an early present for our twelfth wedding anniversary. The answer to the formula is the multi-holiday "AnaBirthMasGiving." Hurrah! The only thing I left out is Festivus.

During this time of year, I anticipate "the coming." More than any American holiday real or imagined, each day becomes a holy-day welcoming "the coming."” God took skin and bones and turned it into something beautiful - something God like. The human being reflects God's image. While humans were the culmination of an amazing creation, God out did himself by taking up the same skin and bones as his own coat. God became human.

The result is worth celebrating. God did not remain a baby in the straw. God became a dead man on a cross. God again stood alive on the tombstone of his grave. The results of the journey divinity to baby to man to death to life are difficult to reduce. On one hand, God was never the same because he entered our suffering and death and made it holy. On the other hand, humanity could never be the same because God made us holy.

Celebrate that God has come to earth, that God has come to life again and that God will come again in victory. Why? Because God loves you. God gives you life. God gives you future.