Paper Plates for Christmas--and Five Star Service

Yeah, we just had paper plates for Christmas dinner instead of fine china for company. (I don't even HAVE china!)

We were trying to focus on company who need Christ rather than focusing on china.

I hope that was okay with Jesus.

We spent hours cleaning up and doing dishes and trying to make our poor little ranch house halfway presentable for our Malaysian/Indian friends, and I'm not sure it was even halfway presentable.

Do you suppose a motley Christmas, with homemade chocolate fudge served on aluminum foil 

and cherry pie served in a boughten crust in a foil pan,

was okay with Jesus?

We didn't have that great a gifts for our company, just what we were able to find at the last minute, as I had very little time to go shopping, and I hadn't expected them to bring much for us. (Boy, did we get surprised!)
The girls had run into Dollar Tree and purchased coloring book, crayons, bubbles, etc. since this little girl has to spend many hours amusing herself at the restaurant where they work.)
It wasn't gold, frankincense and myrrh by any stretch.
It just made a little girls' eyes light up with delight.

Do you suppose it was okay with Jesus?
We didn't do any preaching, just visiting and singing and discussing and giving horseback rides
 (our horse is anything but a divinely appointed donkey that carried the virgin mother)
 and talking about their lives in wrestling and traveling and working at a 5-star hotel.

Mr. Tapio explained how that after spending years working in a 5-Star hotel where such great people as the US President and other high-up government officials stay, he finds it interesting to go into a McDonalds, for example, and notice how their service may be anything but 5-Star.

There are a lot of cultural differences between people and places and circumstances and expectations about how to celebrate Christmas, for example.
I, a homeschooling mom, am always trying to think of how to reconcile love represented in giving generously at Christmas time
with the need for simplicity so we don't go crazy!

I suggested doing a family name exchange this year to give some organization and maintain fairness while simplifying the gift giving.
Nobody I suggested that to wanted to do that. The girls and some of the others wanted to make or buy something for each person.
They were having so much fun doing that.

I suppose there were about 10 gifts per person. (Not much in dollar value, but lots of love and fun with handmade or built items, and things purchased at Dollar Tree, goodwills, and discount shelves!)
That was about 90-100 gifts around our tree this year. 
I had to give up simplicity and "fairness" and give room for generosity and spontaneity.
Do you suppose that was okay with Jesus?

We had our friends going around our motley ranchette taking pictures and saying how this is what they are dreaming of having someday--
a place in the country to raise their girls (a second one is on the way!)
"Love gives far more than thoughtful, beautifully wrapped gifts," writes Jon Bloom of DesiringGod.

"Love gives the gift of patience when Christmas celebrations don’t go as planned. Love gives the gift of kindness when holiday tempers flare, insensitive comments are spoken, and expectations are disappointed.


"Love gives the gift of not envying those whose Christmases seem happier,  
not boasting over social media with a picture-perfect (and misleading) holiday moment,
 not seeking its own way in a group decision over a holiday leisure activity,  
not being irritable with adrenalized children or crabby relatives,
 and not carrying resentment over past or present relational offenses..."


"It doesn’t matter what our past motivations have been, or what our motivations have been so far this year. It’s not too late to lay aside the motivations of fear, obligation, and selfish expectations, and to make love our aim in all our gifts. It is not too late to view each person as a priceless soul God has made, and to pursue the pleasure love experiences in pursuing their joy."
Thoughts from Jon Bloom at Desiring God

And sometimes love has to understand that while we may meet one person's expectations at  Christmas, we cannot meet the other's.
We cannot please everyone at Christmas. If we give 5-star service to one or a few, other people automatically receive less
because we are human and not divine.
We are finite and not omnipotent; we can only be one place at once and not omnipresent.
Honesty requires that we have to let go of a lot of other people's expectations in order to share our Christmas with people who haven't heard much about Jesus.
We may have pleased no one else at all, yet sought to please Christ. 
All we could do this Christmas was keep our hearts open to the open door of opportunity that God set beautifully in front of us
and give it our best. If one-star service of paper plates and horseback rides in the pasture was the best we could do, but we did it with 5-star desire to please Christ from our heart,
do you suppose Jesus was okay with that?