I admit it. I love watching all the Christmas movies I can during this time of the year, even the super silly, sappy ones on the Hallmark Channel. One of my favorites to watch year after year, however, is the old classic Dr. Seuss tale of The Grinch. Bug and I already watched it together this year and he really loved it. I really loved explaining to him about what Christmas truly means and pointing out how the lessons that The Grinch learns can be remembered by us all.
Christmas is in full swing here at Boys and Girls Country and that means our annual Christmas decorating contest, Tour of Lights, and our extra fun party we call Day of Wonder with our Cottage Sponsors from Cypress Creek Christian Church. We even got a bit of snow to kick the season off right!
Getting out the trees and all the trimmings is always a joy to me and I say every year that I feel so lucky that it is my job to decorate for Christmas. I am reminded of all the years of hauling out the boxes from the attic with Momma and Daddy to find again the treasures that had been packed away from Christmases past. Each ornament we hung held precious memories of time spent together and the act of decking the halls again together each new year became like a sacrament of family blessings. I was reminded also this year so vividly though how these Christmas joys of my memory are not always necessarily shared by the children we serve here at BGC.
We decided since we have only been in the cottage for not quite a month and did not have a huge storage shed of Christmas decorations to choose from, we would use some of our Georgia Bulldogs ornaments and decorations to do a Waller High School themed light display for Tour of Lights since this is the school the boys all attend and they are also the Bulldogs. We made the side of our house look like a field house and concession stand and served popcorn out of our kitchen window. We also made a little football field and pulled Daddy's new truck he is so proud of up like we were tailgating the big game. It turned out great and we actually won Honorable Mention in the contest for our efforts.
I first spotted my little Cottage Grinch while we were putting up the Bulldog tree. He worked diligently helping me put up the trees and put on the lights, but all the while he was mumbling sarcastically about how much he hated Christmas. At first I thought he was teasing because he did not like the work of decorating, but soon I realized that there was more to it than that.
As we prepared for Day of Wonder I wrote "Merry Christmas" across the dry erase board in the dining room where we usually write down chores and other weekly memos. A little bit later I saw him drawing on the board, trying to be unseen but not escaping my motherly eye. He scratched out the word merry and drew a frowning face. Our first thought was to get onto him for being such a Grinch but when we thought longer on it we realized that this was his way of expressing the sadness he was feeling this time of the year. He was not acting out as some kids do by fighting, or even talking rudely to us. He kept to the business of being a good leader in our cottage, doing his chores, and participating kindly in activities, but these subtle clues were his way of saying that this time of the year brings back painful memories and it can hurt to take part in Christmas traditions.
I realized that there was probably a time when Christmas was magical for him, a time before he was old enough to understand how hard this time of the year was for his mom trying to make it on her own. But as reality set in with age I imagine this time of the year became harder and harder. I know things really began to change for him when his mother remarried and his step father was less than ideal. Coming to this country has meant many new opportunities for he and his mother that they would not otherwise have had, but it also has meant that the abuse has followed them, and he has ended up here at BGC, no longer able to be home with this family during the holidays.
I pondered what I had explained to Bug about the Grinch. I thought about sweet little Cindy Lou Who and really questioned in my own heart how it was that she was able to bring the joys of Christmas to the Grinch's heart. I have decided it was done simply be carrying on with the joy she had within her despite the best efforts of the Grinch to ruin it.
I have seen our little Grinch soften a bit since yesterday. The joys that our Cottage sponsors brought with them through the home made food, the warm embraces, the laughter and the smiles meant even more than the gifts that they so generously brought for the boys. Anyone can buy items from a wish list, but it takes a true servant to come out and share the Love of Christ in person, the best gift that can be brought. This is the real reason for the season and it is how even the hardest of Grinch-ly hearts grew right before my eyes.
There are still a couple of weeks before the Big Day is actually here. Most of our boys will go home on the 2st but a few of them will stay here with our single teaching parents, Bruce and Chelsea Woodrum. Cliff and I will be traveling to Virginia to see his family that we have not seen in over a year.
Pray for our boys to get their grades up and finish this first semester out strong.
Pray for the boys who go home over the holidays to have good experiences with their families.
Pray for those who stay to build new happy memories and holiday traditions here at BGC.
Pray for Bruce and Chelsea as they are away from their families during this time of the year and as they minister to the boys who will stay here.
Pray for us to have traveling safety as we make the long trek to VA.
But most importantly pray for us to be the Joy of Christmas for our boys. Last night as we left church Bug came running up to me to point out the tree that was set up in the lobby. He wanted his picture made by it because as he put it, "It has the Christmas Star and the Lord I Lift Your Name." (For those of you who don't know that is what he calls a cross because of the song by the same name, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High") As I look back at the pic I snapped of him I realize that this is what we are all called to be this Christmas to everyone. We are to point them to the manger and to the cross, and to the joys that are found in each. Pray for Cliff and I as we try to do this for our boys.
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