Christmas Travelogue

I have almost always associated the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with some significant amount of traveling. As a child, we typically headed to South Georgia or to Michigan for Christmas with grandparents along with a regular series of gatherings at the homes of various aunts and uncles during the holiday season. As a preacher’s son, there was a veritable parade of travel to church events, class parties, and choir activities… or extended times baby-sitting younger brothers while our parents attended such events. We survived quite well, however, and saw the Christmas-New Year’s week as a special time to be with our family.

The years I sang in the Atlanta Boy Choir brought another series of special holiday memories, the annual December concert, or caroling at a series of tree lightings or Woman’s Club events and even singing at the smoke-filled Capital City Club in Atlanta. Other years brought singing for the officers at Fort McPherson, including a few Generals and their families.

In later years we traveled with college age church friends to a national student gathering in San Antonio, Texas. And when we were older, there were several fishing trips to Florida in the days immediately after Christmas. Whether our travel took us toward sledding and ice skating in the north, or dove shooting and fishing in the south, we often found times with cousins and kin that we seldom saw during the rest of the year.

But to get there took time on the road. And the weather wasn’t always the most cooperative. Getting to where we wanted to go could be downright challenging…there was the New Year’s eve when we hit the metal pipe on the Tennessee highway that punctured the gas tank and left us stranded for several hours waiting on a welder with a cigar hanging from his mouth to weld the gas tank …and yes, without blowing himself up. There was the December weekend when my mother went shopping with a friend and because of a sudden ice storm a ten mile trip home took almost 5 hours. Twenty hour road trips with a wife and four sons gave my dad many interesting challenges. In those days before car seats, one effort had him putting suitcases in the floorboards and covering them with blankets to make a bed all across the back seat so he could drive through the night while we slept most of the way. Travel was and still is a part of our holidays. Now we take the grandchildren to visit their grandparents and enjoy gatherings with them along with the many activities of our own household.

But like it always has been, the travel has in mind a destination. The journey is always a part of getting to where you want to go. The road, whether more or less traveled, is likely to present some dangers as well as joys. Such is life as we live each day, reflecting on our opportunities and embracing them in the celebration of every gift God provides along the way. Long roads allow for great conversations and sharing. Through the years, the places we visited and the people we shared our time and love with have all made the journey worthwhile. The days remain full and blessed and amazing as we continue to follow the road before us. It comes with recognizing the gifts of God’s providing in each moment. Thank Him for them. And as you listen to and sing the carols, riding down the road, remember a couple of folks traveling to Bethlehem so long ago…to sign up to pay taxes…and to share the birth of a child that makes all of life for us this Christmas a promise of joy as together we remember and look forward to His coming again. Make a point to share the good news of Jesus with those near you this holiday season. When you do so, they truly become “Holy Days.”