Every summer, when I was a little girl, my parents would drive us up to Estes Park, Colorado to visit my mother’s parents. While we were there, we would take a trip downtown to a very special store, The Christmas Shoppe. This store specialized in Christmas supplies and decorations, and it never failed to put a little bit of awe and wonder in me, as my eyes lit up with the sparkly lights and decorations and my senses were overwhelmed with the feeling of Christmas in this place. It even smelled like Christmas in this store.

I loved going to this store. It always seemed like a special moment out of time, when I could look at Christmas decorations and dream about the Christmas that was to come in just a few short months. It was a magical feeling knowing that there was at least one place in the world where the Christmas spirit lived on year-round.

Over twenty years have passed since our summerly trips to Estes Park and The Christmas Shoppe, and I sometimes find myself as an adult wondering where that feeling of magic has gone. Now, I turn on the radio in July, and can hear Christmas music playing twenty-four hours a day. I walk into craft stores in September, and find Christmas displays up before the beginning of the school year. I drop in to buy Halloween candy on Halloween day, and find the aisles cleared of those supplies, and filled with Christmas gift sets instead.

It no longer seems magical to have access to Christmas decorations and supplies year-round. It just feels pushed and pressured, a commercialized venture encouraging me to buy more and more and focus more and more on the trappings of the Christmas season, instead of the magic and the wonder of it all.

And yet, even in the midst of all of that, there is a sense of magic and wonder that remains as we exit the Thanksgiving season and enter into Advent. It’s a sense of magic and wonder that comes with the special and awe-filled traditions of Advent that help us to truly prepare for the Christmas season, not just decorate our homes for it.

The feelings of the magic and wonder of Christmas remain as we light a candle for each Sunday of Advent, a slowly growing level of light that heralds the Light of the World coming to illuminate our way. The feelings of the magic and wonder of Christmas remain as we slowly recount the Christmas story through scripture, building up and leading to the Advent of the Birth of Christ. The feelings remain, and grow, as we walk through the season of Advent, remembering why it is that we trim our trees and decorate our homes in celebration of this time.

Sisters and Brothers, as we face the growing push towards the selling of Christmas to us year-round, let us hold on to those feelings of the magic and wonder of Christmas, letting the joy of the season grow in our hearts as we celebrate the traditions that help prepare our hearts and our lives for the true “reason for the season.”

**Thoughts published here are mine and mine alone, and may or may not represent the thoughts or opinions of Southern Heights Presbyterian Church, Homestead Presbytery, Synod of Lakes and Prairies, or the Presbyterian Church (USA)**

**Comments will be moderated for civility. Remember to discuss ideas, and not people...and never type anything here that you wouldn't say to your grandmother**

As I sit at my keyboard on this fine, clear and cold day, I have what seems to be a million ideas for blog posts running through my head.

"I could write about thinking theologically about.."
"I should challenge us to consider..."
"I might share..."

I want to get it right, set the right tone for this space of ongoing reflection on the church website, and I want it to be impressive/exciting/mind-blowing enough that it will keep you coming back every week for fresh content.

But there's a question that first must be asked...a question that must be answered before any amazing or mind blowing posts can ever be even conceived.

Why?

It's an important question, I think, for any person or organization to be asking about all of the things that they do. Why do we do the things that we do? What do they mean to us?

It is a question that, if it goes unasked or unanswered, can undermine any venture or program or idea...because it is always out there, lingering, haunting, nagging us to dig deeper into what it is that we are doing and plaguing us with doubt about our purpose.

But it is a question that, if asked and answered, helps us to understand and know our purpose and our reason, to fire up passions and energies, and to give us the encouragement to keep on.

It's a question that we have to be continually asking and answering about everything that we do in the life of the church (universal), an organization that, like many others, has forgotten the "Why?" and has all too often reduced the work of the church to a list of tasks and duties to be checked off of a list...things to do in order to get them done.

When that happens, we get stuck in a rut, doing things only simply because they are what we think we should be doing, either because we've always done them or because someone has told us that it's a good idea or what we should be doing.

In asking the "Why?", we get to the heart of it all, and find meaning and reason and purpose to the things that we do (and when we don't, it is easier to set them aside).

In that spirit, it is important to ask: Why have a Pastor's Blog?

The answer is because I think that it is important to have space for reflection and thought and conversation about the things that are on our hearts and our minds. It is vital to carve out space for that reflection and conversation in a way that is comfortable and accessible to a variety of people when they are available to engage...

Especially as we continue to live in an ever expanding digital age, this seems like a good avenue to engage in those conversations.

And so, here we are...in a place where I will surely offer greatly profound and insightful thoughts (said with a heavy dose of self-deprecation), as I offer up weekly reflections and thoughts about whatever I'm thinking about, whether that's what I'm reading or watching, or what's going on in the world, in our society, or our culture.

It's likely to be a joyfully eclectic space.

So I invite you to pull up to the internet, grab a cup of coffee, and join me in conversation.

**Comments will be moderated for civility. Remember to discuss ideas, and not people...and never type anything here that you wouldn't say to your grandmother**

Keeping the Magic

Finding the "Why?"