Coming Home

First Thursday of Advent

From Wilshire Advent Devotions 2009

Luke 2:1-4: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

There’s something magic about “coming home” for Christmas – the anticipation building with every mile until at last you burst in the door and find yourself in the warmth of family and friends. The first opportunity I had for such a trip, I decided to do it big.

During Christmas break from college I rode a Greyhound bus from Dallas to Tucumcari, New Mexico, to join my older brother on a long, winding drive home for the holidays. In the span of four days and a thousand miles we saw some sights, visited friends, bought some gifts and horsed around. We survived ice and snow, too little sleep, too much fun, and a blowout on my brother’s pick-up truck.

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Boxing Christmas

First Wednesday of Advent

Originally posted Monday, December 9, 2013

Ever wonder what would happen if we could stuff Christmas back in a box? Ever wonder if it’s even possible?

I ask this after a woman I’ve come to know in recent weeks told us that when she was a child in Holland, Christmas was observed in church only and wasn’t the all-encompassing cultural event that it is today in the United States.

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Oh Tannenbaum

First Tuesday of Advent

Every year about this time I go shopping for a live Christmas tree but I don’t actually buy one. I don’t need one because LeAnn and I have one of those sturdy, dependable artificial trees that you buy once a decade. Still, every year I take Wilshire pal George Gagliardi to get his tree and that puts me in close personal contact with real live Christmas trees.

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