‘Tis the season to be jolly. ‘Tis also the season when we hear the question, “What do you want for Christmas?” For some, that may be the reason they are so jolly during this season. As we grow older, what we want for Christmas changes. In fact, what we want may become less and less important to us. We may even come to the point of not wanting anything at all, or at least nothing for ourselves. The ladies in my life, my wife and daughter, have been asking me what I want. I really am having a hard time answering. I have everything I need and most everything I want. Honestly, that has not always been the case.
I remember some things I wanted when I was a child. I got some of them and I didn’t get others. Some years I even got some things I didn’t ask for, or necessarily want, but I had enough education by that time to muster up a smile and say, “Thank you.” One Christmas, I so desperately wanted a Big Bruiser tow truck. It was a battery-powered toy tow truck that you could actually hook to a wrecked toy car and tow it away. If my memory serves me right (sometimes it serves me left these days…because it has left me), you could pop off the bent fender and replace it with a new one. I was heartbroken when Santa didn’t deliver my Big Bruiser. You could say my feelings were bruised. Another popular song from my youth comes to mind. It said, “You can’t always get what you want.” Ironically, a few years later I was working in my older brother’s paint-and-body shop…changing out real fenders. That song went on to say, “But if you try sometimes, you might just find, that you get what you need.”
So, what do I want for Christmas? Like another song says, “All I want for Christmas is you.” I indeed do want another Christmas (and as many more as possible) with the loves of my life. That begins with my wife, daughter and son-in-law, and the greatest grandson in the world. Since I still have my two front teeth, I don’t need those for Christmas. I would love to have a hippopotamus for Christmas, but I’m afraid the water in my little creek behind the house is not deep enough for that. I also think there may a problem with some zoning laws and perhaps with the neighbors. A more practical gift might be one of those cute little miniature donkeys. On an even more practical level, I would like a pack of peanuts and a 6-ounce Coke…and maybe a Chocolate Moon Pie and an R.O.C.
There is an old song that says, “Christmas is for children.” That may beg the question of what age are these children. Some may be old enough to have children of their own, and maybe even grandchildren, if they are so blessed. I’m afraid we may have made Christmas for children, but actually, Christmas should be mainly about one particular child that was born 2,000 years ago.
What I really want is really huge. It is of biblical proportions. When Christ was born, angels appeared to shepherds to announce his arrival. According to the Gospel of Luke, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace, goodwill toward man.” That’s what I want for Christmas too…Glory to God, peace on Earth, and goodwill toward others.
Bill King can be reached at bkpreach@yahoo.com or 334-728-5514 (office).
