SSMT Verse 22: Ecc. 1:1

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

We are fast approaching the last of this year's Siesta Scripture Memory Verse challenge...wow...
Today's verse is from the 'familiar but never actually memorized' category again...and when I decided this would be my verse for today and looked it up, I was surprised at how unlike my sorta kinda memory of the verse the NIV version actually is:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven - Ecc. 3:1 NIV 84

I'm afraid the version of the verse in my head was mostly the Byrds.

See, I woke up this morning with a nearly irresistible urge to pull out the Christmas decorations and start festifiying up the house.

For some of you, that doesn't seem so weird...you may already have lights on the eaves and a tree twinkling away in a corner, but for me...wow.  I don't do Christmas before Thanksgiving.  It's an important distinction to me, and I really, really am set on that.  No decorations, no Christmas music, and no Christmas movies before we pause to thank God for the blessings He gives us every day.  We enjoy Thanksgiving as its own day before jumping into Christmas.

 Yet I found myself thinking, 'This is my house.  I could decorate now if I wanted to.'

I was surprised that the urge was strong.  And so uncharacteristic.

Especially given that the last 3 or 4 years have found me severely lacking in the Christmas enthusiasm department, for one reason or another or maybe a whole bunch together.  I wondered if I had come to the point in life where I decided Christmas was just not what it used to be.  I remember watching that happen with my elders; wondering how they lost that Christmas twinkle.  When I discovered it playing hide-and-seek in my own heart, I began to understand.  But it made me sad.  I didn't want to lose that part of myself that rejoiced with family and music and tradition and awe at the miracle of God coming to us; I didn't want the celebration to be something that I endured for the sake of the kids.

So, while this morning's urge was surprising, it pleased me.  I have not moved completely into fuddy-duddy-dom yet.  I was relieved even as I sternly told myself I had to get the house cleaned and straightened and ready for festifying first.

Because there is a time for every purpose activity under heaven. :-)