What Christmas Is All About, Charlie Brown.

 

I feel a special affinity with Charlie Brown... the empty mailbox, the lack of athletic prowess, the crazy dog. 😉 I am a huge fan of all things Peanuts and particularly love the FOREVER postage stamps celebrating the Christmas special!🥰  A Charlie Brown Christmas was the very first animated special based on the Charles Schulz comic strip. It debuted on December 9, 1965.

In this special (just in case you’ve never seen it 😉) Charlie Brown finds himself depressed as the Christmas season rolls around. Lucy suggests Charlie get involved. She advises him to direct the neighborhood Christmas play. In typical Charlie Brown fashion, his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers. Enter Linus, his faithful friend, full of wisdom. He tells Charlie Brown about the true meaning of Christmas and Charlie cheers up. The Peanuts gang unites in the end to celebrate the Christmas season together!

Perhaps you are feeling a little dismayed by the holiday season this year. A little depressed, a little down. I would definitely agree this year has been rather depressing. 😞 Charlie is dismayed by the commercialism of the holiday, the shallowness of it all. Maybe you, like me, are upset because of all the loss this year. The loss of Christmas programs or the work Christmas party, the loss of big family celebrations or Christmas Eve services. Perhaps, worst of all, the loss of loved ones. 💔 

Maybe you’re feeling a little like Charlie this year...confused about what Christmas is all about. Is it even worth celebrating? And if it is, how on earth can we celebrate this crazy year? This year may be dark, dreary and barren but now is the time to plant! It’s the time to sow seeds of hope and joy and love! 

I’m not much of gardener but when Super Murphy Boy was in kindergarten he brought home a little pumpkin seed he had planted at school in a paper cup. We didn’t really have a spot in the yard to plant a pumpkin, so I found the biggest pot I could, filled it with dark, rich potting soil and transplanted the contents of the paper cup into it. We watered it and waited. All through the summer and fall we were amazed at what came out of that one, tiny pumpkin seed!! A small green sprout turned into a long, rambling vine that trailed up and out of the pot, and wound around the propane tank twice! This thick vine had broad succulent leaves and bright yellow, funnel shaped flowers and eventually four perfect pumpkins that were big enough to carve into Jack-o-lanterns 🎃 that fall!! 

Super Murphy Boy was proud of his tiny pumpkin seed. So was I. Did we have the power to make that seed grow? Nope, absolutely not. But we know and follow the God who does. The same God who packs all of that potential into that tiny pumpkin seed makes other things we plant grow, too. Like kindness and love and forgiveness and hope and joy and laughter! Anything done in the name of Jesus Christ is not done in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) It has ETERNAL value. It has amazing potential for growth. Even the tiniest of seeds. So get out there and start planting seeds this Christmas. Trust that the God who loved us enough to send His only Son to be born on Christmas and die on a cross for our sins, can and will cause our seeds to grow and blossom and bear fruit in our lives and for potentially countless others!! 

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy

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