This will be a memorable Christmas

This will be a memorable Christmas for many, simply because of how uncomfortable it has already made us. The ice storms that still loom large in our imaginations have deprived most of us of our electricity (at least for a time) and still more importantly of our perfect schedules.

With store after store shutting down, and forgotten loved ones needing our places to stay while sanity and heat return to their places of dwelling, we are uncomfortable to say the least. But perhaps this is a good thing. After all, no one can really accuse Mary and Joseph of having lived the high life during their sojourn in a Bethlehem stable. And they if anyone would have known the sheer discomfort and embarrassment of having to ask for warmer accommodations.

So yes, this will be a memorable Christmas, but I am starting to believe that it will be so for all of the right reasons. Discomfort, family, the needy among us, the unknown…it may not be what Christmas is all about but it sure is what Christmas, the first Christmas, was like.