BETTY JANE HEWITT Spirit of Christmas is found in God's love

Sitting in the doctor's office before Christmas, I am listening to holiday music and watching an animated snowman on a nearby table hanging onto a revolving parachute.
I am reminded of a note from a friend who wrote "Our Christmas tree is up and decorated, I play lots of Christmas music and I am working on our cards, so we have the spirit."
The spirit -- where is the elusive Christmas spirit?
Going through the motions of enjoying the ho-ho season, I am knitting scarves for gifts, and thinking about decorating the tree, front door and mantle. I have wrapped the last DVD and traditional tie. But this year something is missing.
I wonder about people who are lonely, those who have lost loved ones, families in which relationships have turned sour, and those whose only companion is depression. Our country is at war.
Christmas can be brutal. Where do those people find the Christmas spirit?
We approach the holidays from various perspectives and different experiences. But it is a fact of everyday living that the issue of life and death is ever present, whether it be Christmas that is celebrated or Hanukkah.
Dear friends and family members have left us, but Christmas gives us the added blessing of remembering them and the joys we have shared. Christmas can be a memorial for those we love.
Church pageant
Having said all of this, the lack of a Christmas spirit keeps nagging at me. With all the uncertainty, fear and desolation that surrounds me, can I find the Christmas spirit in the year of our Lord 2003?
Then our church had its annual Christmas pageant. Three Christmas angels, little girls, dressed in white choir robes sang "Away in a Manager." In the chancel arrayed in dark red Poinsettias and brightly lit candles, children's voices proclaimed "Silent Night, Holy night" while a young angel Gabriel held high a silver foil star from his position on the pulpit.
The joy I knew as a child floods my heart, as I watch three kings in bathrobes and paper crowns approach the altar where the baby doll representing the little Lord Jesus rests in a cradle taken from the church school nursery. Once again I was remembering the meaning of Christmas, the Christmas spirit is the love of God for his people.
The spirit of Christmas isn't found in decorating the house, or a doctor's office with a gyrating snowman, it is found in decorating the heart.
The Christmas spirit is the love we hold in our heart for family and friends.
The spirit can also be found in the Scriptures that remind us at this season that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so we could have the forgiveness of God.
May you during this special time find the true spirit of Christmas.
XBetty Jane Hewitt is a member of First Congregational Church in Newton Falls.