Mandisa sings a song with Matthew West called “Sometimes Christmas Makes Me Cry.” The chorus goes like this:
Tears of thankfulness, tears of hope
I cry tears of joy at Christmas cause I know
There is peace on earth for every heart to find
And sometimes Christmas makes me cry
I’ve been pretty verklempt lately and for a while, couldn’t figure out why. I think I’ve got it now.
Last week we had our Sunday School Christmas party. I’m the youngest person in the class and I used to think they just tolerated me! Now, they humor me and spoil me. Last year at our Christmas party, we did the gift exchange thing where everybody gets a number and you choose presents in that order. When it’s your turn, you can either choose a new gift or take one that somebody else has already opened. I got this adorable set of bowls and tried very hard to just disappear. I made it all the way to the end and then the second to last person took them from me! This year, they gave away “one special present” and they drew names to see who got it. It was me – and inside, was another set of those incredibly adorable bowls. It was all a set up – nobody else’s name was even in the drawing except me!! But, somebody remembered how much I loved those little bowls and took the time and energy to find another set.
Yesterday at school I got this sweet little gift bag from one of my students. Inside were pencils (what teacher doesn’t need more pencils??) and five little packages all wrapped up. I opened one and saw a familiar orange and brown package. It is NO secret how much I love Reese’s peanut butter cups and this darling child wrapped them up like presents to put into my bag. How sweet is that?? She also gave me a card that made me cry a little!!
My AWANA leaders gave me a card that made me cry Wednesday night. One of my boys in AWANA went out of his way to tell my leaders “thank you” for something and that almost made me cry again! Today I was putting up Christmas ornaments, some of which were my Mom’s and I almost cried. So what’s up with all this crying?
I finally realized some of it - they say that it’s the thought that counts with presents and apparently, people think of me more than I know. It’s actually very humbling – that other people think of me!
I think the last verse of the song says it best:
I think of Mary and the virgin birth
And I’m amazed at how much God thinks we’re worth
That He would send His only Son to die
And sometimes Christmas makes me cry
I think sometimes we forget how important we are to God – and how important we can be to other people and not even know it! Maybe that’s why Christmas makes me cry!
