In many countries, this is Boxing Day, and I don’t mean it’s a time when we put on gloves and solve all our differences with combat. The day after Christmas is a day when some people give gifts to those who serve them on Christmas Day and throughout the year. The gifts are boxed and, I suppose that’s where the name comes from. I’ve read that this day was also named for St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. So, it’s St. Stephen’s Day too.V
I’m not sure if Boxing Day is observed anywhere any more. If any of you know, please tell me. Josephine? What do you think?
Wouldn’t it be great if this Boxing Day, we could take empty boxes, fill them with all our cares and worries, all our mistakes and heartaches, all of the negative thoughts and worrisome reflections of the past year and just send them away somewhere? Not to anybody else, but into oblivion, never to raise their ugly heads again.
Boxing Day was a tradition, and today we have our own traditions. I love going to candlelight service at church with my family, the quietness and beauty of it; I like the tradition Dawn started of supper at their house after the service on Christmas Eve and opening gifts. This year, we listened to Christmas songs and sang along with them. Fun! Then, on Christmas morning, breakfast with Matt, Dawn, and the children, and the Santa Sacks. Next stop–my house for dinner. Warm and beautiful traditions.
Once again, life resumes its busy-ness. Cars zip along I-49 as people go back to work or start their journeys home. Once again as my fireplace blazes, I enjoy that first cup of coffee and look out at a cloudy, windy winter day. Christmas 2018 is past, a time of gratitude, reflection, and worship. It is time to bundle up the year with its good and bad, its highs and lows, ask God to forgive mistakes and errors of the year, thank Him for His many blessings, and look forward to 2019, with hope and faith in the One who is Lord of us all.
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