By Sue Staton

Somehow the calendar has slipped around to 13 days before Christmas as I write this. Every year it seems it makes this date a little quicker than it did the year before.

As a child, my life seemed as though a day was so much longer and one year from the next seemed like an eon away. Seasons seemed to take much longer to get through, especially winter.

However, this time of the year was always special. It wasn’t that I or my siblings would be looking forward to an expensive gift for Christmas from our parents. We knew every year they did the very best they could for us. It was because of the magic in the air. We knew that church became more special and family gatherings with our cousins would always be joyful ones.

Christmas actually was the way it was intended to be. When we think back to our best Christmases, it wasn’t what we got for Christmas but the memories of being with our immediate and extended families.

As I mentioned last week, Winchester is doing its best to realize the beauty of Christmas. Last night I attended First Baptist Church’s program of “This Child Is The One.” They did a wonderful job of letting the crowd know the real meaning of Christmas.

The whole program was beautiful with crowd participation to get everyone in the spirit of Christmas. The baby Jesus participant was perfect just like the one it portrayed. I could not help but think how every baby is born so innocent but only one ever grew up without any sin.

I feel so blessed to be among people who do not let the world dictate Christmas for them. While at the same time I think of how our world has become so immoral and the world is trying to do everything it can to take away from the true meaning of Christmas.

My own church at First Methodist is amazingly beautiful at this time of the year and as we observed Advent Sunday I got to understand a little more as to what it means to wait for the Lord’s arrival.

I could not help but think of a story my sister told me of her exchange student who kept taking the baby Jesus out the manger scene. When she asked him why, he explained to her it wasn’t the right time to do so and that Jesus had not been born yet.

He understood what it meant to wait until Christmas. What a beautiful day the celebration of Jesus birth really is. How we all wait with the anticipation of Christmas. As I have mentioned in my previous columns, it is the anticipation of Christmas I enjoy most.

In a few short days, Christmas will be returning around the world. For each person, their memories of Christmas are individual and it is what is in their heart they will remember.

For some people, Christmas will not be the same with the loss of loved ones. For others in wartorn countries, Christmas may be another day, but I guarantee the ones who know Jesus will realize it is not.

I hope as you make plans to enjoy Christmas this year with your family that you let them know the true beauty and meaning of Christmas. We also are awaiting another special day: the day the Lord will come again. Let us rejoice the coming of Christ.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native who grew up in the Kiddville community. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who is active in her church, First United Methodist Church, and her homemakers group, Towne and Country Homemakers.