December Days

December favorite is my favorite month.

I love how this month is filled with a new kind of wonderment. The Christmas spirit is alive! People are excited to be giving gifts and time to the ones they love. December is different. It smells better, it tastes sweeter, and it calls for sweaters and mittens.

In high school, I promised myself that I would never let a day in December unnoticed. I wouldn't try to simply "get through the week" like I usually would during any other month, I would savor each and every hour of December because it is just so special. I wanted to give a gift everyday, to extend cheer and graciousness to people I never had before. December made me a love-struck, googly-eyed teenager, and I was in love with life.

There is almost a sacredness to life that I re-discover every December; a sacredness that I don't necessarily feel every other day of the year. Why is it that December was (and sometimes, still is) a more important time of the year than any other day? Why is my life worth more in these 31 days? Why can't this joy I feel in December, the joy of giving and serving, spill over into the other months? One of my life verses, Ephesians 5:15-17, talks directly to the issue of valuing time: "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."  Paul understood that time is fleeting and that no day should go un-lived. I reminded of this verse in the times where I am going through the motions just to get to the weekend, when I am defaulting to my routine rather than praising My God in the beautiful fact that I'm alive, that He chose to wake me up today. 

Today, I am alive. And so are you! God is not finished with us-- He has work for us that we have yet to complete. That staggering truth kicks me right out of the silly mindset that one month or one season is more special than any other. The richness and beauty of life does not live within the confines of a fuzzy feeling or a gift exchange, it is the mechanism that allows for these things to happen.

Yes, December still smells and tastes better; and I must remember this wonderful feeling during January, February, and the others. God is present and engaged in every moment. That, my friends, is timeless.