Christmas & Love

Every Christmas I seemed to be hurrying LOVE. I love selecting gifts, the wrapping, the giving and all that. For the most part, I LOVE what I am doing, but everything is done in a hurry.

Last year, I had fun decorating up the house for party with friends. Then I flew to Australia with my hubby to spend it with my brother & mum. Everything was done in a hurry but things slowed down at down under. It was nice, except for the heat that didn't quite fit into the Christmas mood. Christmas dinner was home-cooked meal seated on the floor in a little modest rented apartment. There were no Christmas tree, but a bright hand-made star that hung at the glass window. My brother & mum got 2 coloured wig to welcome my hubby & me when we arrived on Christmas Day. We looked like 2 clowns celebrating Christmas with them. It was a funny sight indeed, but boy, did we have fun!

As one cannot hurry love in no form of persuasion or the speeding up of the development of love, many people cannot help but still hurry in the maddening pace of life.

But in that hurriedness of everyday life, there cannot be LOVE. I was more prepared this year. I got the Christmas cards early. In fact i got it on boxing Day 2004. It was the best time to get stuff when everything is on sale. I got Christmas gifts early this yr as well and finished writing "LOVE notes" on every cards. For those I do not get to see nor do I have their home address, there're always electronic cards we can "pre prepare".

In my unhurriedness, I seem to feel Christmas in my heart alot earlier. The familiar Christmas songs that ranges from funk to jazzy R&B ones to soulful chorals, Christmas trees that dazzles at every corners from downtown to neighourhood shopping malls. The well known Orchard Road, a signature of Singapore's yearly effort in making sure that no one forgets Christmas, dresses every lamp posts and roadsignages with as much glitter & glamour & enough lightbulbs to wake a sleeping baby. churches and caregroups round the world are not losing out, events and to-do lists piles up in an effort geared towards spreading the good news in this season of LOVE. Everything seem to strike such nostalgic notes in my heart. I thought about LOVE somemore.

I thought about who I LOVE, and those I don't. I thought about who LOVE me and those who don't. For the most part, I felt saddened. I wasnt sure if I was feeling melancholic, in self-pity or guilt, for the number of whom I don't quite LOVE was alarming. I was also equally concerned with those who I was quite sure did not LOVE me.

There is such a need for our hearts to be LOVED and to LOVE. I was blessed this year especially when God sent me true friends. I would proudly name them, for the LOVE they have given me had brought me so much so much comfort & joy. Angela, Kate, & Michelle. God also sent me a new friend & his family from Oregon who LOVE God so much. I was full of surprise & joy at what God could do! My keyboard coach & mentor, Andrea & her entire team at BelieverMusic blessed me tremendously with music, their hearts for God and people, their selfless dedication for discipleship & their immense encouragement is a testimony of God's miracle in my life! Through them, I experienced tremendous grace & LOVE outflowing from the heart of our heavenly father. And last, but not least, my family; my mum who chipped in to help with my Christmas props , her tireless preparation of dinner when i ran out of stamina from work, My brother who spent time hanging out when he was back for holiday & my husband whose gentleness & unwavering LOVE gave me the strength & encouragement to be more Christ-like.I count my blessings for the many lives who stood by me, believed me & accepted me in spite of my flaws. This, in the whole year's experiences summed up, is what make the coming Christmas worthwhile. The true spirit of Christmas, the essence of LOVE manifested through the birth of Jesus Christ.

For the many lives untouched by LOVE I pray God becomes real to them this Christmas. For the part of my heart, still fleshly & unmoved by LOVE, I pray God change me. I often wondered if it is possible that we live in a world where pure LOVE simply oozes out of every human being. I learnt the hard way that it is not to be so, at least in this time. But it is in God, who had first LOVED the world, that he sent his only son to die for us, that I found the courage and hence the hope to live & to discard that ideal and move on. To yearn for a perfect life is either one of foolishness or of escapism. God is not merciless. To help us survive through the rumble & tumble of life, he threw us yet another life-line. He exhorts us to LOVE him, and in so being we become filled with his LOVE, and then are able to LOVE others again.

This Christmas, I choose LOVE. An unhurried time to learn to LOVE those I have yet to LOVE.
John 3:16 "For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

May the immeasurable LOVE of Jesus bless you as you prepare your hearts for a meaningful Christmas 2005!