Over time, by learning and
searching, I discovered some building materials and I think it’s time to
reconstruct.
1) I have outgrown the
Baby-Jesus-in-a-manger warm fuzzy. I treasure the beauty, but there’s more
there, there.
2) I have a track record of downplaying the Santa/commercial element having decided it was way, way, overblown in our culture to the point of replacing Jesus, ironically without Whom there would be no Christmas.
3) I cringe at the dearth of Christmas faith factors in our culture’s “Christmas Season” and shake my head at how instead it’s an excuse sometimes to do things that are—how can I say this—sinful.
4) Some things I always loved - trees and other heirloom traditions - have had roots in paganism. My strategy thus far has been to infuse them with meaning from the real Christmas.
5) I’ve learned about some neglected Biblical holidays I never learned to celebrate and now wonder if more emphasis needs to go there instead. More learning is needed. Potential exists for a big overhaul.
2) I have a track record of downplaying the Santa/commercial element having decided it was way, way, overblown in our culture to the point of replacing Jesus, ironically without Whom there would be no Christmas.
3) I cringe at the dearth of Christmas faith factors in our culture’s “Christmas Season” and shake my head at how instead it’s an excuse sometimes to do things that are—how can I say this—sinful.
4) Some things I always loved - trees and other heirloom traditions - have had roots in paganism. My strategy thus far has been to infuse them with meaning from the real Christmas.
5) I’ve learned about some neglected Biblical holidays I never learned to celebrate and now wonder if more emphasis needs to go there instead. More learning is needed. Potential exists for a big overhaul.
So, I've been trying to assemble and reassemble my approach and I feel like I'm
forever falling short. How can I embrace all that I grew up on for Christmas
and say it still has meaning? Jesus Christ, the Namesake of the Holiday, came
to bring salvation, not by His arrival into the world of itself, but through an event many
years after His birth. That event's mention is mysteriously lacking inclusion in Christmas
traditions and weighted with emotional polarity to the Joy of Christmas: Jesus’
death on the cross.
But here I am again. I happen
to be getting another Christmas newsletter (and this post) together thereby striking
up my internal Christmas orchestra. In the back of my mind is a compulsory list
of Holiday To-Dos starting with “Get the Christmas boxes out of storage”. And
hovering in my mind is the memory my family who loved Christmas dearly, and passed
all their love of the season on to me. It almost feels “wrong” to
reinvent my approach to celebrating.
So I'm questioning. Why do people celebrate? Sentimental reasons, it’s fun, (but also work), it
brightens up gloomy colorless winter, and it unites us together with all
the other celebrators whether or not they even acknowledge Jesus as Lord, in
some kind of brotherhood-of-man feel-good way that may be just an illusion.
Still, doesn’t it warm us to drive by strangers’ houses and see those colorful
lights? To hear carolers at the mall? To be at once, overwhelmed and still
impressed with all the massive, endless hustle-bustle big-deal being made and
know it started when my Savior was born? Do you wonder, as I do, and silently
hope there is a glimmer there, just a tiny one that maybe, maybe, everyone
knows deep down there is a Greater One Who is the at the foundation of this
cavalcade of stuff we do to celebrate Christmas?
