After a good two and a half months of Christmas craziness, most of the holiday hoopla should wind down today.

All that remains can be boiled down into just a few categories: cleaning up, assembling things, returning things or trying to forget the drama of the season.

Now would be a good time to pause and ponder how much time we spent this holiday season actually celebrating the birth of Christ.

For most of us — me included — if we aren’t careful, the hectic rush of the holidays makes it easy for us to simply run right past the “reason for the season” on our way to the Black Friday sales or mom’s German chocolate cake.

A few years ago, the little WWJD bracelets became popular by challenging us to consider: What Would Jesus Do?

The popular slogan was a way for us to all stop and look at our problems through the eyes of Christ. That process puts things in a completely new perspective.

Last week, two old e-mails popped into my head, both of which are applicable any day, but perhaps especially on Christmas Day.

The first is something I’ve seen quite often. It goes something like this: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

God has a plan for each of us; even if we don’t know what it entails, rest assured the plan exists.

Sometimes his plans can come up and surprise us. Things that we at first may think of as mistakes can often hold great meaning.

Such is the case illustrated in another e-mail.

I’m unsure who the author is or if it’s even based on a true story or not, but none of that matters.

The kindergarten class was preparing for their Christmas musical. The big event would be at night, but the daytime dress rehearsal allowed parents who worked at night to see a bit of the performance.

At the director’s hand motion, the children stood up from their Indian-style seating positions on the stage. She announced the first number would be “Christmas Love.”

The music started and standing below poster board snowflakes and a Christmas star adorned with glitter, Mrs. Johnson’s class started bouncing to the music.

As the children began singing “C is for Christmas” a child on the front row stepped forward and held up the letter C. “H is for Happy” prompted the second tyke in the row to hold his cardboard H high into the sky. This continued with letters accompanying lyrics.

The song seemed to be going on OK until the M girl stepped up. She accidentally flipped her letter upside down, making it appear as a W instead.

The older students in the audience immediately started laughing and pointing, but the little girl had no clue what they were laughing about.

Everyone in the room except that little girl could see the mistake.

Teachers tried to hush the cackling older children, but the laughter continued, until the last letter S was flipped into the sky.

A hush came over the audience as the real reason for the season was suddenly evident, from what everyone else viewed as a mistake, the lesson was clear: CHRISTWASLOVE.

Amazing how He can speak to us when we least expect it, isn’t it.

Merry Christmas to all of our readers. Each of you is special to us, and each of you is special to Christ, too.