Christmas Leftovers

 

On the day after Christmas, I sat by the fire eating a plate of leftovers.  Christmas leftovers, and Thanksgiving leftovers, are the best ever.  The feasts themselves are wonderful, but there’s something satisfying about picking through various bowls and containers the next day and making up a plate.

Thoughts about leftover food and treats led to thoughts about other leftovers.  Leftover feelings, which can be good or bad.  Leftover regrets, that can destroy our joy.  But wouldn’t it be incredible if we could hold on to and even multiply the leftover goodwill that Christmas seems to inspire?  Leftover smiles, leftover generosity, leftover thoughtfulness – a little more kindness, a little more grace.  A little more love your neighbor.

This was a different kind of Christmas season.  Uncommon cold gripped the South in 2022.  Pipes froze, snow and ice curtailed travel, an airline catastrophe crippled Christmas plans for many people, and the general feelings of dissatisfaction and unease threatened to overwhelm the goodwill to men that we sing about at this season.  I almost fell victim myself to the bah humbug virus.  I was suffering the effects of a abscessed tooth and its resulting extraction.  I had leaking water pipes and a huge water bill, and I was trying to keep eight horses fed and watered in below zero weather.  Cue the tiny violins playing a sad song.

On Christmas morning, I was at the water tank, hooking up a half-frozen hose and running frigid water for the horses when, out of nowhere, the words of one of my favorite carols burst into my head.  “I heard the bells on Christmas day,” I heard.  “Their old familiar carols play.”  Longfellow wrote those words at the beginning of the Civil War, shortly after losing his wife and seeing his son march off to war.  The first few verses are a little dark, crying out that “there is no peace on earth, I said.”  But then there is that last part that gives us all hope. 

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

A few days before Christmas, I saw this on Facebook.  “Imagine what 7 billion people could accomplish if we all loved and respected each other.”  Maybe that is too much to bite off and chew at one time, but imagine what we could do if just the people in our own community could love and respect each other.  Or to begin even smaller, what could we do if the people in each family could truly love and respect each other?

So many times, we have seen the power of a community coming together to love and support one another.  Just before Christmas in my hometown, a horrendous fire engulfed a house just off the town square and very nearly took the life of a young lady who is one of the bright lights of her generation.  The prayers of Centerville blanketed that family and covered the firefighters who spent hours controlling the fire, which could very well have engulfed half of the town if it had spread.  Thankfully, our prayers have been answered and Maddie is on the road to recovery.  

On Christmas Eve, a dedicated group of volunteers collected food, cooked and served a holiday dinner for 500 people in our community.  A twenty-something year old tradition, skipped for a couple of years because of Covid, continued for no other reason than to share joy with the community.  On that same day, free toys were handed out at a local church for those who needed help providing for their children.  Another church collected toys and other items for a “Christmas Store,” allowing children to shop without money for gifts for their family.

Imagine what 7 billion people could do.