NEVER FORGET THE CHILD IN YOU by Robert Soto

NEVER FORGET THE CHILD IN YOU by Robert Soto

December 26, 2009

Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 4 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..."

Christmas day is almost over. In two hours it will be 364 days to the next Christmas. As I sit here writing these thoughts to you a lot is going through my mind. For a winter day, it has been a good day -sunny and mid-sixties. It was a new awakening for my grandson who is three years and two months old. He was not quite sure how to open the gifts he received but with each one he opened, a joyous feeling came into my heart as a little boy learned the art of receiving. We will work on the giving part for next year. I still enjoy the eyes of my three kids, even though they are in their twenties, as they opened each gift and thanked the person who gave them the gift. Then it was off to Grandma's house for our annual Christmas Dinner. My youngest brother drove with his family three hundred and seventy miles to be with us. After we finished eating, the party started. My mom gives us socks each year and so they started the 'sock dance.' Each time someone walked out of the living room with a package of socks, kids from ten to mid-fifties started to yell, "Sock Dance, Sock Dance, Sock Dance." And like a whole bunch of crazy Indians we all started to dance to an old Jewish song with Russian steps.



Then it was home for a short rest and then off to visit with some friends and the other side of the family. But it seemed like Christmas was a day of fun. It was a day to enjoy the spirit of giving and the spirit of the coming of God the Creator's Son. It was a day to forget our age and come together and celebrate in our own childish ways. To joke around and have fun. To remember the Christmases of times past and to plan for those in the future. We are a family who has suffered loss. We are a family who, each Christmas, remember those who are no longer with us. But we are also a family who knows that death is not the end but the beginning of life. We are a family who has its differences but we are a family that forgets the past and lives for today and the future. We are a family who still knows what it means to be young, regardless of our age, and I am the oldest of nine. As Solomon once said, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." Today, was a day to laugh and dance. Today was a day to remember the child within given to us by our Lord and Creator above.

Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of:

McAllen Grace Brethren Church
The Native American New Life Center
Chief of Chiefs Christian Church