Christmas … the season where “peace on earth and good will to all men” is “celebrated” … blew in and out like Hurricane Katrina this year for us. We still have the occasional bow blowing across the hallway in tumble weed fashion. Yet, it was somehow worth it, for we packed in two really meaningful long trips to see family … both as Thanksgiving and Christmas. We also had family blow into our “serene” harbor.
I would do it all just same again and again.
I would not do any of it anywhere close to it if we were still running the glitzy commercialized treadmill. Nope, we got off that quite some time ago. It’s been a rather interesting trek off the beaten dollar path into meaningful “presence” and away from glitzy “presents.” Our little girls are 3 and 1 this year, and though we’ve exiled Santa, he still keeps lurking around our bushes. Evidently ADT hasn’t picked up on him yet. As if our girls magical ages weren’t enough stuffing for our turkey of a season, our oldest turned 3 on the December 30th … thus a birthday to pack into Santa’s sleigh.
While we could have gone cold turkey on gifts altogether, we decided to play it flexible and shift the system in a better direction. One part of our family drew names this year, and another part is considering a similar move. Though, they played naughty instead of nice, some of our church people drew names as well (but in the end bought gifts for all kids). This Santa and his Mrs. Clause went through our clothes and books, while our little elf (which we are very proud of) went through her toys. We made a rather nice gift box for a needy mother and a humble donation to the Salvation Army. With our little elf’s birthday a few days around the Christmas corner we sent out party invitations with the express desire “Please, no gifts!” Most were nice instead of naughty on this one.
Now many of you might be thinking us to be rather naughty instead of nice! How can you do that to those little girls! Who ever heard of such madness!!!
Our little elves weren’t hurting this year at all for presents. Nope, not in the least. They were well taken care of. However, we trimmed the fat rather heavily. Many gifts to our family were financial, which were then placed into educational investment accounts for the girls. Hey, an 18 year old Barbie Doll is not going to do much towards helping to pay for college! In the end we are giving our girls the best gift of all … training them to be givers, investors, and producers before they are gluttonous, snot-nosed consumers.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christmas is a truly wonderful American holiday that is one of the last anchors for the family in our society. Despite whether one is a believer or not, seeing family at Christmas is a top priority for most in our society. Gift-giving … at least for a moment … potentially draws the focus off of oneself and onto certain special others. Let’s not forget that glorious bird who lays down his life every year for us … and turkey gravy, turkey sandwiches, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies … well you get my point.
Yet, in watching my baby girl tear into her presents this morning … as well as tearing into everyone else’s presents … tore into a certain part of my heart. “Mine, mine, mine,” was her anthem. Now you might well say that “mine, mine, mine” is the anthem of every 2-year-old, and you are certainly correct in this dry bit of factual information. However, the implication is on the naughty list. As our society grows infinintly more secular, I’m afraid that the “mine-mine-mine” anthem lasts a bit longer past toddler-age than ripped-up wrapping paper. I know many adults (myself included at times) whose anthem is merely a more sophisticated version of “mine, mine, mine.” In my favorite movie, “A Christmas Story,” the mom asks her two present-happy boys and worn-out, syncial husband if everyone is ready for Christmas to begin. This morning I even found myself teaching my baby-girl to say “Merry Christmas” after the paper-ripping fest.
While I am certainly not advocating the complete abandonment of gift-giving as a major facet of Christmas, as a believer and as a decent human being, I wish to train my children in civility and train them out of barbarity. The root of this is found in who Jesus is and was … this Jesus who came “to give his life as a ransom for many” and “came not to be served but to serve.” May we not deceive ourselves into thinking we are serving the children in our subsidizing of barbaric “mine-mine-mine” attitudes through indulging their commercialized whims and fantasies. Rather may we train our children to truly worship the same Jesus that the original St. Nicholas truly worshipped (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus). May we train them to be givers and producers rather than merely consumers.
Christmas has since I can remember been a time of fanciful imaginging and wonderlands of daydreams. However, in recent years, this favorite time of the year for me has been losing its luster. Even my all-time favorite movie, “A Christmas Story,” was a bit anti-climatic this past week. Have I shot Christmas-eye out?
However, this Christmas will go down on record as the most memorable for me … due to a short visit back in Georgia (where most sweetly-good things are!) with my brother’s family and a couple of friends. In visiting with my brother’s family, he and I got the unique opportunity to teach his 5-year old daughter how to ride a bike … with no training wheels. He had already begun to work with her. Upon arriving at his place, I joined in the fun, and together we helped her move from terrible fright (especially on concrete) to riding by herself (on concrete) with emotional zest … all in one day!!!!!!!
From whipping him in several riviting games of checkers to great conversations with several other family folks to putting stickers on Burger King toys for both my neice and nephew to staying up late and watching “Pirates of the Carribean 3″ and eating fudge with my sister-in-law to connecting over lunch with three really great friends who really love the Lord with deep passion; this visit really scratched my Christmas itch. As an emotional stocking-stuffer, I got to return home to my wife, who has become my best friend and talk to a another good friend on the phone, who I had to leave behind in Kentucky.
Yes, giving is a major part of Christmas; and while buying stuff to give to people can potentially cause you to think about someone other than yourself … many people are actually drowning self-consumption. The gift-giving tends to be more about them than the person for whom they’re buying.
What made this visit so rewarding, I believe, (even though I happily and proudly bought things for people) was the opportunity and ability to personally invest in the lives of others and tend to relationships with people very important to me. That is something which makes even the brightest Higbee’s Christmas window display pale in comparison.
The Higbee’s picture is from the site: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=022301.
As you may or may not know, I’m a pastor. As you may or may not know further still, I don’t have an unlimited spiritual reservoir. I get tired. I am tired … spiritually speaking.
I need the Lord. I guess that’s how I know that I know the Holy Spirit is holding fast in my heart, filled with multiple distractions. My first mentor once said to me that one of the greatest tools the devil has at his disposal can be being busy. And … as believers who are hard at work … at the Lord’s work … there is much temptation to go, go, go … without resting in God’s presence in personal worship.
After all, if I take care of myself, then I’m being selfish … right? WRONG!!!!!! There is a reason why the airlines advise parents to secure their own oxygen masks before those of their children.
In my Christmas sermon series, I’ve made one critical comment concerning nativity scenes. (Mostly, the criticism is not directed so much at the nativity scene themselves as at our own perceptions and conceptions.) Nativity scenes can be way too polished, often leading the observer to forget the scandal and hardship and heart ache that was that first Christmas for many of the major players.
However, one thing that I’ve never seen a nativity scene mess up on is the power of a moment. All nativity scenes I’ve ever seen (live ones excluded) have each of the characters kneeling, bowing, standing … but all are still and quiet … at worship before the infant King. That I believe is the moment of glory for the nativity scene. Even as I write this my heart is longing ever more to be still and quiet in worship before my King.
That, my friends, is the basic Christmas spirit. Every thing else that’s good about Christmas must flow from that attitude of worship.
“All this took place to fulfill what the the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us). Matthew 1:22 & 23 (ESV)
One of the names of Jesus is Immanuel, which means God with us. It is indeed interesting that Matthew brings this information out in the midst of what had to have been a tumultous and scandulous relationship between Mary and Joseph. Mary was pregnant before her marriage to Joseph. However, Mary and Joseph were betrothed, which is engagement on steroids. They were legally pledged to be married. They were legally married without the ceremony and benefits.
Mary is pregnant. The baby is not Joseph’s. But Mary got pregnant from someone. Can we say “Soap Opera?” Adultery was rewarded with stoning. Joseph trusted Mary enough to dismiss her behind the scenes. Enter the Lord (or the Angel of the Lord). He tells Joseph this is God’s doing, to be patient, and wait. Joseph was to still marry Mary. The people talked … no doubt the people talked. “Soap Opera?”
This is what Jesus was born into. Jesus was born in choas. That first Christmas was surely choas. Today, when things are sheer madness, I want the Prince of Peace that was born in sheer chaos to be born anew in my heart.
