It’s December, and that means the all-Christmas-music-all-the-time radio station is on in my car. I love this time of year, and I love all types of Christmas music, from the silly to the sacred. (Okay, I have to admit that I abhor “The Holly and the Ivy,” which makes no sense to me, doesn’t rhyme, and I’ve heard sung by a screechy soprano too many times to count.)
Today as I was listening I heard a version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” that included a verse that said, “We wish you a lot of presents.” Huh? It seemed especially harsh because Les and I have been contemplating what type of “fast” we are going to do this month in order to support the the end of poverty as encouraged by the 58: movement, including the movie we watched and the Fast Living book I blogged about. We are also doing alternative gifts that meet the needs of the world’s poor with some adult family members.
The song seemed especially incongruous when it launched from “lots of presents” into the “Count Your Blessings” chorus from White Christmas:
When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
It made it sound like all those presents were the blessings. That’s not the point of that song, as our yearly tradition of watching White Christmas can attest to. It’s about remembering the blessings God has already provided.
And so as part of my Christmas gift to Jesus and pursuit of a meaningful Advent season, I am going to try to document some of the many blessings God has provided to me. I’ll list some in blog posts like this one, some in the comments section and some on my professional Facebook page. So if you haven’t “liked” that page, you may wish to do so.
Here’s my first one: I’m thankful for the blessing of mostly good health and doctors with knowledge to help when I am not healthy. This week I had two fairly worrisome medical appointments based on results from previous tests. The doctor at the first took an amazing amount of time with me and seems to feel the damage they are seeing is past damage related to my autoimmune problems and not some new brain problem. The second appointment was for a more thorough test for another issue and resulted in a clean report. I am thankful that medically things look stable and I am feeling well. God blessed my life again.
Why not join me in counting your blessings? The song says we’ll sleep well. Sweet dreams!