Today has been a glorious day! The sky was pale ocean blue, a few blue spaces sketched with thin blades of white clouds, their bellies cigar smoke gray. They day began cool but the sun warmed the earth as I sat perched in the porch swing watching the songbirds on the feeders. Titmice and chickadees rustled the dead poke salad branches cracking open their seeds one at a time. The cardinals dressed in their finest robes of crimson brought their demure brown velvet mates to the bird feeders on early afternoon dinner dates.

I’m having an adventure tonight. Looking forward to Christmas dinner with oldest brother and his girls and their families. We’ll laugh and enjoyed a delicious supper at the home of his oldest daughter. I’m excited to be spending the night with them. I invited myself and they graciously said I could. I remember when oldest brother and his wife came to tell us they were expecting a baby. Daddy called me into the kitchen and said, “Your brother has something to tell you.” Soon as he said they were having a baby we all starting crying. We were so happy to hear this news. The first grandchild of my parents, Jimmy and Rosalyn McMurray, was a little angel in heaven beginning her journey to our family.

I remember the day she was born. My childhood friend Chip and I were at a Sunday school Christmas party at the Baptist parsonage and Mama called to tell me oldest brother and his wife were on the way to the hospital in Opelika to have the baby and they were leaving for Opelika, too. I begged to go but they said I had to stay home. I was so excited to await the news of the baby’s birth. I remember the glorious smiles on my parents’ faces when they came home to tell of how beautiful their granddaughter was. My daddy was smitten with her and would drop in most mornings at oldest brother’s house on his way to work to get a peek at her.

One of my favorite memories of her is her riding on the folding arm rest on the front seat of daddy’s’ big old Buick. We’d never heard of car seats and every time I went around a corner she’d fall off and land in the back seat floorboard. She’d scamper back up on the arm rest and never failed to say, “I okay!” I was in college during her early years and daddy brought her once with her mother and my grandmother Big Ma to pick me up at Wesleyan College for a weekend at home. It took forever for them to get there to pick me up. Daddy said they had to “pee” a thousand times and go slow by every southern mansion they passed. She and her sister are beautiful young women raising darling girls. I love them and always feel my mother’s presence when I’m with them.

My first niece was followed by nine more wonderful grandchildren of my parents who are grown and raising beautiful children of their own. I’m blessed to be loved by all of them and I’m always thrilled to seat them around my holiday tables. My daddy loved having company, loved entertaining our college friends. I know he and mama look down on our family from heaven with Rosie and Chief and smile when their great-grandson delivers the blessings like a seasoned preacher at our holiday dinners.

The love of family is such a beautiful blessing. Children are an inheritance from the Lord bringing us joy and reflections of God’s love. Bible scripture instructs us to “love each other deeply,” to raise our children “in the Lord’s training.” Scripture in Exodus says “children should honor their father and mother.”

I have lots of framed photos of Christmas with my family and I display them at Christmas time on the long window sill of my kitchen windows. My family enjoy them and we all talk of how quickly our children grew up and how fast our grandchildren are maturing. Time is really fleeting. I remember when my children were young, Chief’s sister would walk around our house at their bedtime shaking jingle bells. This always thrilled my children and they’d burrow down in their covers, eyes shining with excitement of thinking of Santa getting close. Those were beautiful, happy days.

Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. He was God’s gift to us to save us from our sins. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” God gives us grace and we make the choice to receive it. Our Christian faith is based on grace and God’s grace has given us salvation. The biblical definition of grace is underserved favor. We don’t earn God’s grace, it’s freely given to us. God doesn’t keep track of our successes and failures. God gives his goodness freely to all of us. God’s grace not only offers salvation but also secures it.

“May the magic of Christmas fill your home with love, your heart with warmth, and your life with joy.”