Wife's Wisdom: How our Flood didn't Steal Christmas

With the Christmas season upon us, there has been an increased level of activity in our home - particularly in the area of Christmas decorating. During our first Christmas as a married couple, we decided to continue my wife's family's tradition of decorating the tree and home as a family while listening to Christmas music and then enjoy a cup of hot chocolate together. We continued that tradition this year with both of our children joining in. Our older daughter was actually helpful and did a great job getting the ornaments on the tree (albeit mainly bunched in one area). Our two year old mostly ran around the room, but at least he didn't destroy anything.

My wife has an amazing eye for what looks good. She picked out a beautiful Christmas tree, and after the lights and decorations were on, she thought that adding some gold mesh glittery garnish (I really don't know what it's called) would make the tree look just right. She made the garland by getting some gold mesh (which you can probably get at any craft store like Hobby Lobby), bunching it up and creating bulges by tying gold and green pipe cleaners around it. Quite inventive, if you ask me. You can see what I mean below. She spent a great deal of time putting the finishing touches on this tree.

Here is the result:

About a week or so ago, she decided to put some presents under the tree, hoping that our 2 year old wouldn't grab, unwrap, scatter, or otherwise destroy the presents. He has done amazing and hasn't opened a single one.

It was shaping up to be a picture-perfect Christmas in our household.

Then last Saturday happened.

While at a scout activity, I got a text from my wife asking if I knew anyone who had a shop vac that could suck up water. This is not the text you want to get - ever. Then, later, I got a phone call from her, frantically asking if I'd come home early from the activity.

I discovered that the discharge from our washing machine had somehow pulled out of the wall and leaked gallons of water onto the floor and had seaped into our bedroom and the family room carpets. Then, just to make it more interesting, the Christmas tree fell over, spilling water all over the presents and drenching that part of the floor as well.

Here are some pictures of the fallout:

 

After most of the water was wiped up with all of the towels in our house, we used fans and shirts to try and dry out the carpets.

 



 Here I am trying to dry up the carpet with the shop vac where the tree had fallen over.

 We had to pull up the carpet and get the wet padding out to avoid mold. Which put our bedroom in quite a bit of a mess.

Talk about a stressful morning for my wife! To add a bit of perspective to the situation, my wife is in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy, I had been away for the previous 2 days, and she was at home with two young children and her father-in-law who was visiting that morning.

Yet, in the midst of floods and a toppled tree, my wife's wisdom does not disappoint. When the tree fell over (for the second time) my daughter was, naturally, very upset and exclaimed, "Christmas is ruined!" Noticing a teaching moment, my wife stated:

"Christmas is not ruined. Christmas is not about trees or presents, it's about Jesus."

I've thought about my wife's statement quite a bit since our Christmas flood of 2013 (hopefully it won't be an annual thing). We spent a lot of time, energy, and money on the tree, the decorations, and the presents. My wife certainly put a great deal of her soul into making sure the tree was lovely, the presents precisely wrapped, and the decorations on the tree trimmed just right. She loves to make sure things look beautiful and is a natural homemaker. As I've said before, her ability as a homemaker is a beautiful gift that she gives to me and our children each day. And yet she recognized that the tree, the decorations, the beautifully wrapped presents, and even a dry carpet are non-essential Christmas items. She knew that there is truly only one essential Christmas emblem - Christ Himself.

Most presents are likely to be forgotten or broken as time passes; trees will be mulched, trashed, or gather dust in an attic; most decorations eventually break; but God's gift of his Son to each of us is as timeless as eternity.  I believe John put the essence of Christmas best when he wrote:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

I'm grateful for my wife who, right in the midst of what seemed like a Christmas season-ending disaster, had the insight to teach all of us in our family what Christmas is really about.

Since the flood and tree falling incident, we have fixed the carpet (after a couple of late nights) and put the tree back in place. We have yet to redecorate the tree or put the angel on top - it's a combination of fear that it will fall again, not wanting to replace broken lights, and simple laziness since Christmas is so close anyways. So, the tree looks much more plain than it did before. But, each time I look at that tree, I remember our little experience last week. Some of the frustration comes back, as does some sadness for all of the hard work that my wife put into such a beautiful tree which she doesn't get to enjoy, but my wife's wise words also come back to mind each time I see our relatively bare tree. It might be odd to say, but we were given an early gift this Christmas season - a reminder that no matter what happens, the real gift of Christmas is always given, waiting to be received.