Christmas is a time where family comes together in joy and love. So, naturally, as I am far from home, I begin to think of my family and miss them. But I have continually asked myself why. Not that we shouldn’t miss our family or shouldn’t feel homesick, because I certainly have, but why is this one day of the year so different from the others? Why do I feel so much more homesickness on one day than I have in the past 3 months? Because as a family, we eat breakfast together? Because we spend extended time together or bless each other with presents? Yet, these are things that I do with my family throughout the year. So why is this one day so different? Why do I spend more time and effort to think, and pray, and talk to my family than every other day of the year?

The truth is, it is not different.

I have been celebrating an idea rather than reality.

Reality is that I pray for my family always. Reality is that we bless each other, laugh together, and love each other always, not just one day out of the year. So I began to wonder why we view God in this way as well, why, this one day of the year, we celebrate Christ with more enthusiasm and awareness than the rest of the year. We remember him in music and in the Christmas story; we remember him in gifts and in fellowship with family. But what if every other day were to look like Christmas? What if we anticipated every day like we do Christmas? And what if we remembered Christ just as passionately as we do on Christmas? What would happen?

The idea of Christmas would become reality.