Thoughts of the Season

THOUGHTS OF THE SEASON

by Deaconess Liz

How do you prepare for your Christmas celebration?  Do you travel?  Do you decorate?  Do you sing carols and learn special songs? Do you shop for presents?  Do you make cookies?  Do you decorate a tree?  The real question is WHY do we travel, decorate, shop, bake, and buy presents?

People spend more time with friends and family during Christmas than any other time.  Maybe some of you have traveled far enough that you spend the night.  The bed is not yours, the house is different, and maybe you couldn’t sleep because of all the strange sounds.  Even though asking “are we there yet?” and sleeping in someone else’s bed or house  might spoil your visit, you don’t let it because  you like being with your family.  The family trip described in Luke 2 is AWAY from friends and relatives. Far enough away from home to spend the night, no comfortable bed, not even a place on the couch or a warm spot inside a house could be found.  Rather than complain, Joseph found a safe, warm, and dry place for his family to celebrate the first Christmas.

I like to decorate my house with candles, angels, holly, lights, and so many other symbols that remind me Christmas time is special and happy.  While I may tell you it is fun, I should be honest and share that it is often a chore.  Decorating a house takes time and energy.  What kind of decorations were there the first Christmas?  Mary and Joseph had little time to hang lights or holly branches with red and green colors before guests came to visit.  But God put an extra special star in the sky to sparkle and shine.  He decorated a simple house to be a house fit for a king.  I have to remember who I am celebrating and stop complaining about time and energy.

A fun and happy part of Christmas is singing Christmas carols. Lots and lots of songs were written about Christmas.  Some talk about snow, some talk about bells, some talk about trees, and some talk about reindeer and a sleigh. The best songs are the songs we sing that tell the true story of Christmas.  When you think about it, every Christmas carol started with one – Read Luke 2:13-14.

There is no way getting around shopping and sharing Christmas presents.  We make lists, we ask for lists; we buy and make gifts to make someone happy.  Wrapping in pretty paper and the bows make the gift-giving fun and help with the surprise!   Too often you hear, or you might find yourself saying that being good means getting a present under the tree.  We thank God He doesn’t make this a condition for receiving His gifts.  When you think about it (and can read in Genesis 3:15) after Adam and Eve disobeyed God He promised them a present.  A gift that would be unlike any other.

It’s a pretty likely that your oven will need cleaning in January.  Whether you entertain or not, I can’t believe there is anyone who doesn’t make or eat Christmas cookies.  Some people think the first cookies were little spicy cakes shared with friends. Almost always, traditional Christmas cookies are made with unique spices – like ginger, or licorice, or lemon, and even pepper.  Think about why we bake and share cookies.  Doesn’t it make sense that it follows the 7^th Century Persian tradition of sharing spicy cakes?  Especially when you realize that the Magi from the East were probably from Persia. Maybe there were little spicy cakes in amongst the gold, frankincense and myrrh that first Christmas.

The idea of cutting and bringing an evergreen tree into the house is credited to Martin Luther.  The story is told that He looked up at the snow sparkling in the moonlight on the evergreen needles and thought it was a beautiful picture of God’s everlasting love.  He brought a tree home to share with his children and added lit candles to teach that Jesus is a light of truth and hope in the dark and sinful world.  I’ve heard of people taking the trunk of their evergreen tree and forming a cross for Easter.  What a great idea!  Take that representation of life and light and fashion it for a display in the spring with the same meaning.  Although the cross was a tree for punishment, it truly is the most important tree a Christian can display.   On the first Christmas, a baby boy saw special lights in the sky, heard songs from angels, received gifts from strangers, and traveled over the mountains and through the desert, but He didn’t hang up a stocking.  Years later, He hung on a tree.  God’s promise of salvation is real, alive, and is what we celebrate.  Christmas isn’t just about a baby in a manger.  Christmas is about God’s one and only Son becoming one of us.