For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people … Luke 2:10
If you’ve been married for any length of time, you know that husbands are particular specimens with particular preferences, which translated means that finding the perfect Christmas gift for your honey can be challenging. Here’s a thought: If we start with the reality that not only is Jesus the perfect Gift, but He is also the perfect Giver of gifts (James 1:17), we can perhaps relax a little as the imperfect creatures we are and simply create some fun for our beloved.
My husband Bob preferred a particular kind of pajamas—cotton knit, shorts with V-necked, short-sleeved tee shirts. When the usual source dried up, and after an exhaustive search, I resorted to Plan C, making them myself. With the hopes of making this a simple project I suggested to my husband that cotton knit shorts with an elasticized waist didn’t need a fly front. Well, that started the giggle, and led into a hilarious conversation.
When the sewing project was completed before Christmas, my imagination began to kick in as to what else I could do with this homemade gift. After some investigation, I decided to make a “get-away for the two of us” a part of the package. That Christmas morning, Bob was quite pleased to find some new pajamas under the tree and with it a certificate for a couple of nights’ stay at the historic (and maybe hysterical) Southern Hotel in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Within the month, we headed south to Ste. Genevieve, where we were guests of a charming couple who, with flair and humor, had turned the 200-year-old hotel into a delightful bed and breakfast; each room was decorated with a theme. Our room was the “Buttons and Bows” room with feminine flourishes of buttons and ribbons abounding everywhere (making light from downstairs coming through the floor boards practically unnoticeable.) I’m not sure what Bob thought as he first glanced around our room, but we both broke out laughing when we spotted the two matching footed bathtubs, carefully screened off from the rest of the room, each outfitted with a rubber ducky.
For a couple of days we were in a quiet world apart, an hour and a half from home, enjoying one another; enjoying being guests and being served generous helpings of the most delectable comfort foods; enjoying finding laughter in the most surprising places; and cataloging some wonderful memories.
Proverbs 17:22 reminds us, “A joyful heart is good medicine …”
How will you bring laughter – maybe even a good belly laugh – to your beloved during this Season of Joy?
We at Hidden Heart Ministry are praying for you and yours a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
