Each year as Christmas approaches, I am reminded of a tradition I enjoyed in my family as a boy.
Although I was born and raised here in Florida, my parents were raised up north in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since the weather up there is much less pleasant during the winter than here, model railroading is a popular hobby up north. The highlight of my first Christmas I can remember as a child here in Florida was the model train layout my dad had built, which I was told he began building shortly after I was born in Tampa. This wasn't just a circle of track under the Christmas tree with a few buildings; this was a permanent HO scale layout approximately 4 ft. x 10 ft. in length, complete with buildings, people, a large assortment of locomotives and rolling stock, working lights, track switches, trees and landscape. Because it was so big, we had no place to keep it set up permanently (no basements in Florida!), so it was stored most of the time in my dad's workshop, suspended from the ceiling. It required a fair amount of effort to get it down and set it up, so we only set it up every other year or so. I LOVED that train layout, and would spend hours playing with it, my imagination pretending that it was my little town for me to ship goods or people to different parts of the town. When we weren't actually playing with the trains, my brother and I would use it as a fort! Since my mom would hang a green "skirt" all the way around it to conceal the underside of the table, we kept boxes under there during the Christmas holidays, so it was a great place to hide and play all sorts of pretend games. As I grew older, my interest turned to constructing model buildings to complete areas of the layout that my dad had not finished. I never really thought about it until now, but maybe that's where I began to become interested in architecture and construction.
As you can probably tell, I have many fond memories of that Christmas tradition. When I think about it, I can mentally escape, if only a few seconds or so, back to a time that I warmly and joyfully remember as a carefree kid playing with the train layout my dad so carefully and lovingly created for our family…….
In contrast, I can't help but observe how Christmas so often becomes a frantic, rushed, stressful time of year, as we rush about to buy a bunch of stuff. May I suggest the following?
- STOP, or at least slow down enough to spend some really good time together with your family. If you only have 18 summers, it means you also only have 18 Christmas's to build lasting Christmas memories….
LOOK into the eyes of your kids and soak in their wonder, enthusiasm, and delight as they experience the joys of Christmas! It will warm your soul!
LISTEN not to the loud roar of our culture that promotes never-ending shopping and PC expressions of Happy Holidays, but instead, listen for the quiet, calm voice of the Savior whose birthday we celebrate on Christmas day!
May you and your family have a safe and joyful Christmas season!
Merry Christmas!
Chief Bald Eagle
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