The Season of Staying in Touch

December 14, 2009

Trivia question! Do you know who Sir Henry Cole was? He was the gentleman who commissioned the first commercial Christmas card in London in 1843 ... an idea that caught on around the world.

Do you send Christmas cards? Many of us do. Christmas cards give us the opportunity to keep in touch, not only with our current friends and family, but also to reach across miles and years to those we have known in other lives.

Christmas cards are all different, reflecting the personalities of the sender. Some are funny. Some give a serious, spiritual message. Some people include pictures of their families. Some include a newsy update on their lives.

We have sent Christmas letters for all of our married life (31 years worth). A few years ago, I began collecting them all into one book. I realized that what we really had was a gold mine of Jones family history. From the first excited reporting of our first Christmas together to "we're buying a house" to "we're having a baby" to this year's note that the "baby" is about to graduate from law school ... our lives unfold ... and we share with those around us.

Each day of the Christmas season, I look forward to the mail to experience the joy of connecting with others, whether it be from across the street or across continents. What makes connecting such a joy?

Connecting with each other reminds us of our similarities and our differences. It allows us to be encouraged, to commiserate with each other or just check in to see how we are handling this trip around the sun. It says, "I'm here. You're not alone." In this modern world of total connectivity, why would we ever feel alone?

Do all our means of connecting with the world really accomplish connecting us to each other? Today we can send an e-mail to a family member in the next room or next cube at work and never have to talk to them. We can safely yell at them on the net without having to worry about what they might say in response. Some people have even been laid off or fired by e-mail.

Today we can sit in a restaurant and access the net on our phone and never have to talk to the one at the table with us.

Today we can put on our headphones, listen to our IPODs and travel back and forth on public transportation and screen everyone out. Are we connected with each other?

Are we connected with God? We can hit the button and send our prayer requests around the world. We can watch Christian TV all day, but never take the time to talk to God, Who is right in the room with us.

There is something (or Someone) inside of us calling to be connected, not to the world, but to God and to each other. Our very physical bodies reflect that need. Nothing happens within the body without the cells communicating with the brain and with each other. It was the Design of the Creator all along.

This Christmas, how about trying an experiment of changing your connectivity?

Really seek to know those you thought you already knew well (like your family). Really listen and talk together.

Have periods of time where you deliberately turn off the TV, turn off the computer, put the cell phone away and pull off the headphones.

Look to the Lord and say, "Please plug me in. I want to be connected only to You."

Walk into public places without any distractions or protections from Life and embrace Life. Say Merry Christmas to that stranger. Help that person who looks like they need help. Say the encouraging word.

Go beyond that chance encounter in the yard with your neighbors. Invite them over for a visit.

And if you feel like it, send a few Christmas cards to people who changed your life ... and reconnect!