It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

But not really.

We currently live in Florida, which is the home the Air Force has assigned us to for the foreseeable future... And I'm not sure my eyes will ever adjust to Christmas lights and blow up Santas next to palm trees.

We move every few years, and while part of me loves having the opportunity to live in different areas of our country (and the excuse to purge the house), there's a part of me that craves "normalcy" and "home". To have roots and traditions and the sense of familiarity, that the Christmas tree always goes in this spot... Instead of creatively trying to figure out where it should go in a new house that I’ll realistically only be in for 2-3 years.

How do you basically make Christmas, feel and look like Christmas... When it just doesn't. Especially when you miss the snow and only see palm trees.

I ponder this thought often, especially during a PCS year (permanent change of station - the fancy way the AF says we moved), when I'm once again challenged to decorate a home that won't be mine for longer than a few Christmas seasons.

How can I shift my heart and mind towards Christmas, when I look around and don't quite see it?

I sat in church on Sunday and listened to our pastor talk about the reason for the season - and that the reason is you and me. God loved us so much that He sent His Son for us, to save us... That's the Christmas story.

Christmas isn't a feeling of merriment or seeing lights and snow and blow up Santas. Those certainly aren't bad things, but they aren't the story or reason for Christmas. Christmas is the world's greatest love story. A love story that came in a package that the world wasn't expecting: a baby in a manager.

Love unexpected.

Maybe instead of focusing on what Christmas looks like, we focus on living Christmas.

Living love unexpected.

Who can you show unexpected love? Is it letting someone in front of you in a long line at the store? Instead of replying to your rude relative with a sharp retort, do you hold your tongue and speak kindness? Is it sending a note of encouragement in the mail to someone who's going through a tough time? Is it attending your student's play? Is it volunteering at your church, in a homeless shelter, or cooking a meal for someone in need, and doing so with a joyful heart?

Love unexpected. The greatest gift the world didn't even know it needed.

Every gift has two actions: giving it and receiving it.

God has given us love unexpected through His Son, Jesus... It's up to us to receive Him, and accept a gift we certainly don't deserve.

It's a gift that will change your life.

It's a gift that provides love, hope, grace, and joy to a weary world that so desperately needs it.

So many of us often lament that this world needs to change.

Living love unexpected... That's how we change the world. One act of unexpected love at a time.