Go Ahead! Deliver Christmas
You have thought what I have. How do they do it? The men and women who deliver packages to our homes for hours and hours and hours on end during this time of the year are incredible. Do they eat? (And by “eat” I mean at a table, not while driving to the next destination.) Do they sleep? (And if they sleep, I mean they are not dreaming of dodging Pennsylvania potholes, barking dogs, and going over the river and through the woods to some grandmother’s house whose physical address is a GPS mystery.)
I met one driver in my driveway today.
“How do you do it?” I asked.
He wasn’t immediately following me. Maybe working 90-hours in a typical 40-hour work week was catching up to him. He asked, “How do I do what?”
I looked at his brown truck and the package in his hand.
“Oh.”
After he gave my most senior dog a dog biscuit (he knows which side of the bread to butter), he said he’s been doing this for 22 years. He added, “I’m used to it. With so much shopping done online now, this is job security.”
As the truck rolled away after a textbook perfect goodbye, the words ‘job security’ started me thinking. With the recent news of a high-ranking political attorney being sentenced to three years in jail and the ramifications of this continue to play out, I think pastors like me have job security because there will always be a need to speak to the positive nature of God when so much negativity happens so regularly.
Let’s not limit job security to pastors and delivery men and women, however. We can all be in this delivery business. We may not have a truck, an abundance of dog treats, or a paycheck coming to us every two weeks (I know…bummer), but we who love Jesus have work—a lot of work—to do, especially now.
More than sporting a “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” magnet on your vehicle, volunteering to costume the kids in the church pageant this year, or even saying ‘yes’ to that big solo during the music time at the Christmas Eve service, I’m talking about delivering Christmas to houses that may not have Christmas. The houses and families I am talking about may have the outward appearance of Christmas. A tree, lights, and maybe a star secured to a high part of the roof may be seen, but the household—and you’re getting what I mean now—doesn’t have Christmas. Instead, it is a red and green event. Ho. Ho. Hum.
Deliver Christmas this year. Find the right homes for those cookies. Help a senior shop. Make a meal to the one it takes you a minute to think of but then go, “Oh, yeah. Of course!” Visit someone you don’t like but are called to love. Smile the genuine smile when someone in the narrow aisle scowls. Let someone get ahead of you in the long line even when you, too, are pressed for time. Wave to a toddler. Compliment her parents. Far better than the church solo gig, sing a carol while you’re filling your tank at a gas station and hope you’re overheard. Make eye contact with someone who needs it and gently say what they know you mean, which is this: “Merry Christmas.”
Yes, with or without a delivery truck, a package in your hand, or 22 years of professional experience, deliver Christmas this year.
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This blog was first published in The Independent on December 19, 2018.
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