MY CHANGING VIEW OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.  Since I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, when I was a young child, Christmas for me was all about Santa.  The anticipation of Christmas centered around when Santa would come, and what he would bring me, and not much else.

As I got older, Christmas meant different things, like the anticipation of company for dinner, and the foods we would eat that we only ate at Christmastime.  It included the excitement of going into New York City with my brother and my dad on Christmas Eve.  Mom had to work, so early in the morning the three of us would board a bus and head for the city. Before we did anything else, we’d stop at the Horn and Hardart cafeteria on 42^nd street and have breakfast.  That was always a fun experience all by itself.

My dad always received his Christmas bonus the day before Christmas Eve, so in addition to simply going into the city, we always had the anticipation of some special treat Dad would buy us with his bonus.  One year we went to Radio City, another year we went on a shopping spree at Macy’s where I picked out a camel coat with a fake fur collar. 

When Jim and I were first married, Christmas became about buying presents for each other, and others in the family.  However, not long before our first daughter Amy arrived, we became believers in Jesus, and Christmas took on a whole new meaning.

Now Christmas was about Jesus, the gift God gave US.  Of course Jim and I still gave each other gifts, and we also had gifts for our girls, but we also tried to center the celebration around the coming of Jesus.  On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and we each took a part – dressing in costumes and all, and acted it out as we read it.  Jim, the only man among us, was usually Joseph.  But I have photos from various years when the girls and I played angels or Mary.  We always had a cake with candles so that we could sing Jesus the Happy Birthday song to celebrate the evening of His birth.  Church was also  an important part of our Christmas celebration. 

With no small children at home now, and only grown children to shop for, Christmas is still about Jesus, even though there is no family Christmas drama to be enacted from the Gospel of Luke, and no birthday cake for Jesus.  We still go to Christmas Eve services and we go again on Christmas day, if it falls on a Sunday.

But we have scaled down our shopping.  At least part of the reason for this is that having working in several retail stores over the years, I’ve become jaded about the whole retail thing. The store owners really don’t care about making our Christmas one our loved ones will never forget, they’re really just about selling “stuff”.

I’m mentally overloaded by a bombardment of November and December commercials that play on my supposed need to buy this or that thing, some “must have” for which my family members will love me.  Before it even begins, I’m tired of the frenzied rushing most people engage in in this season of “shop till you drop”.   Isn’t this supposed to be the season of “Peace on Earth”?  But most of all I’m sad about the absence of the sacred in a holiday season the existence of which centers around the sacred - the birth of Jesus.

Like a tornado that sucks everything into its path, the craziness of the season can whip me into a frenzy too, making it so hard to focus on Jesus and the blessedness of His coming.  That is the TRUE meaning of Christmas after all.

So every year I try to stave off the craziness by doing the very same thing.  I get out my copy of a book called, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and read it devotionally.  From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas arrives, I can be found in some quiet room in our house, spending a portion of every day, reading the book and worshipping Jesus. 

The title gives a hint that the focus of “O Come All Ye Faithful” centers around the sacred music of the season.  For each carol there is a page that includes the words of all the verses.  Then there is a devotional for each, as well as some background on the author of the music and the words, written by Joni Eareckson Tada, John MacArthur, and Robert or Bobbie Wolgemuth.  I never tire of reading this lovely book because it immerses me in the true meaning of the Christmas season. 

One of my favorite carols is not the most familiar by any stretch, probably because of its somber tone, but its words bring me right into the presence of the Lord.

It’s called, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”.   Joni Eareckson Tada, in writing her comments for this carol, speaks of the importance of silence in which to contemplate the Christmas season.  For the month of December, she tries to keep her calendar clear of busyness, and gives this advice to those who also feel the tug of busyness:

“Stop, look, listen, and be still before the Lord.  When you discover yourself becoming dulled to the joys of this season, stop.  Slow down the pace.  Make moments when you just look and listen. . . . Stop the chatter and clatter.  Jesus has entered history.”

That’s exactly what I do when I read through the words of this, my favorite carol. I slow down, listen and be still before the Lord.  There is too much of the sacred in the season to let busyness and noise crowd out the news:  Jesus has entered history.  Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

 

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded, but with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.”

It is in silence, not in busyness, not in the frenzy of shopping, that I want to spend the season leading up to Christmas.  It is in silence that I want to contemplate the awesomeness of Christ’s coming. I want to set aside the things of earth that normally occupy my mind, and lose myself in worship.

 

“King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood,

He will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food.”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the journey of Jesus from the cradle to the cross.  It is in silence I want to remember and worship the mighty King of kings and Lord of lords – the One who came in bodily form, as a humble baby in a manger – in order to die on a cross for me. 

 

“Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,

As the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,

That the pow’rs of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the coming of Jesus, with an angelic army as His escort, to bring Him, the very Light of light, into a world darkened by sin.

 

“At his feet the six-winged seraph; cherubim, with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry,

‘Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Lord Most High!”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the glory of Jesus – in worship, along with all the heavenly host who proclaim, “Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

 

Don’t let the Christmas season pass you by in a blur of busyness, hustle bustle, and noise.  When December arrives, guard your calendar and plan time to be quiet, to think, and to contemplate this awesome truth: 

“For God so loved the world that HE GAVE His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   John 3:16

THE JOURNEY THAT BEGINS WITH A SINGLE - SOLO - STEP

 

My husband Jim and I each grew up in church going families of two different Christian traditions.  While we lived at home with our parents we regularly attended church as a family.  But after we were married and could decide for ourselves what we would do with our lives, we stopped attending church.  God wasn’t on our radar. 

Sunday became a day on which we slept late, went out to breakfast, read the paper, and generally lazed around.  In the summer, maybe we’d drive to a park or to the beach and spend the day there.  Not only didn’t we attend church, but for more than 7 years, we never even sensed a need for God.  And then something changed.

I had begun working as a special education teacher right out of college.  I loved my teaching job and I loved the kids I taught, but over time I began to notice a restlessness.  I wasn’t as content as I had been, with my job, or my life. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but at some point, instead of listening to music on the radio while I was driving to work, I began to listen to a Christian radio station.  I may not know how I began listening, but I know now that God was at work, wooing my heart!  

It’s so long ago now, that I have forgotten most of the details, but what I do remember is that over time the words of that radio preacher began to make sense.  The Gospel, which I had heard often growing up, gripped me as it never had before, and I eventually went from being indifferent about Jesus – to having a soul stirring longing to KNOW Him.  I recognize now that behind my discontent with life as it was, and a new longing for Jesus, was the Holy Spirit.  Finally, at the end of 1975, I could do nothing else but surrender my heart to Jesus. 

A couple of things changed immediately.  The first was that I was incredibly in love with, and excited to know Jesus, and the second was that I couldn’t get enough of reading the Bible.  Many times over the years growing up I had tried to read the Bible, beginning with Genesis, but I soon gave up, usually when I came to those genealogy lists!

Now though, it seemed as if I had never read it before.  Things began to jump out at me and make SENSE in a way they never had before. For the very first time I recognized that what I was reading was TRUTH!  I was flying high with the excitement every new believer experiences.

While I was on this new adventure of faith, poor Jim was scratching his head and wondering what had happened to his wife.  I began to talk to him about what I was learning – and believe me I talked about it A LOT!  He was gracious and kind but not especially interested himself. 

Since faith and church will always go together in my mind, as soon as I had embarked on this new relationship with Jesus, I began to think about returning to church.  I really wanted us to go together as a couple, but Jim was not ready.  I didn’t know what to do, so I made an appointment to talk to a pastor. 

The first thing he suggested was that I begin praying for Jim to come to Jesus too.  And then he encouraged me to plan to attend church, and then extend an invitation to Jim to come along – not with pressure tactics - but with a simple invitation, and to come whether or not Jim did.  He said maybe eventually Jim would also come.  So I did as he suggested.

Some months later, in mid-winter, Jim was working an audit in South Jersey when a snow storm hit.  He was on his way home when his car slid and hit a telephone pole.  The car was demolished, but Jim was unhurt.  Instead of coming home, he stayed the night in a hotel – and thought about what would have happened to him if he had died.  Dying apart from Jesus was not something he wanted to contemplate, and so there in his hotel room, he surrendered his life to Jesus as well.  And for the last 38 years Jim and I have walked with Jesus – together.

It occurred to me as I thought about Jim’s faith story and mine that what we Christians always want is for all of the people we care about: our spouses, children, grandchildren, neighbors, loved ones – all of them,  to have a relationship with Jesus.  But coming to faith in Jesus isn’t really a group activity.  It’s THE journey that begins with a single – but SOLO – step.

I was listening to a CD today of a sermon by Dr. David Jeremiah in which he said this:

God doesn’t have grandchildren. Just because you grew up in a Christian home with Christian parents doesn’t automatically make YOU a Christian.

My parents took me to church.  I went to Sunday school and youth group.  I heard the gospel of Jesus many times.  But when it came to knowing Jesus and walking with Him myself, I couldn’t rely on THEIR faith to save me from MY sin.  I had to come to the place ON MY OWN where I realized MY need for Jesus. 

Jim and I took our girls to church, we read the Bible with them, we prayed with them, we tried to be good Christian parents – but when it comes to Jesus – OUR faith cannot transfer to them automatically.  They have to come to faith in Jesus on THEIR own, each of them, individually.  Our granddaughter will have to come to it on HER own.  

Faith is a life-long journey of walking with Jesus, and it’s a journey we walk WITH Him and other believers – but that journey BEGINS with a single – but SOLO – step – the step of acknowledging that Jesus die for MY sins.  No one can take that step for me.  It’s a SOLO step.

I confess, when the Lord was working on my heart all those years ago, I wasn’t thinking about Jim.  I wasn’t thinking about what might happen if Jim didn’t also put his faith in Jesus.  All I knew was that Jesus was calling ME and I couldn’t say NO.  I wanted the forgiveness and the relationship He was offering.  Once I knew Jesus, I wanted Jim to know Him too, and so I talked with Jim about Him – but whether or not Jim believed in Jesus – I could not say no to His invitation to believe in Him.  Eventually, the Lord graciously drew Jim as well.

I can tell you honestly that I have never regretted for a single moment surrendering my life to Jesus.  He has been the joy of my life.  He has comforted me through trials (and there have been many), He has invited me on some pretty amazing faith adventures, and one day I’ll SEE Him and be WITH Him forever.  That will be bliss!

If your heart is warmed as you think about Jesus, then that is the Holy Spirit,  speaking to YOU.  Don’t hesitate to take the step of faith in Jesus that will set you on a journey you will never regret.  Don’t worry about whether your loved ones will journey with you.  Jesus has them well in hand and that first step is theirs to take.

THE AROMA OF CHRIST

As I’ve written before, I finished training this past spring to be a hospice volunteer.  Unexpectedly, the Lord laid this on my heart at church when I saw the flyer announcing the training sessions.  Having had two positive experiences of my own of caring for people at the end of their lives, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to bring the light of Jesus into the lives of people so close to the end of theirs.

This week I was given an assignment to visit a gentlemen living in a nearby nursing home.  I didn’t know what to expect.  When I arrived, I met a quiet, unassuming man, and my heart went out to him.  Physically, apart from being thin, he simply looked like an aging man, but an attempt at conversation made his mental confusion obvious.  So we simply walked together through the halls.  I asked questions.  Sometimes he gave answers. 

I sat with him for lunch in a room filled with other men and women in various stages of dementia.  It was not quiet.  Music was playing in the background, but above the quiet melodies, agitated voices reigned, as residents loudly expressed their need to just be somewhere else.  My new friend seemed oblivious. 

As I looked around that room I wondered what, if anything, was being accomplished in my “work” as a hospice volunteer, if I couldn’t verbally communicate the comfort of Jesus to those with whom I visited.  I’m not sure if I can completely answer that yet, but I am thinking, and talking with the Lord about it.  As I thought, this came to me:

I have always loved the word picture the Bible uses in describing believers in Jesus as “the aroma of Christ”. 

“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

2 Corinthians 2:13

One of the things I noticed yesterday was that nursing homes have an aroma – and it’s not necessarily pleasant.  But the aroma of Jesus IS.  His aroma identifies us to the Father as one of His own.  His aroma speaks of His love, patience, kindness, and compassion – expressions of a heart that sees the effects of sin and impending death on the bodies of these elderly folks, and weeps.  It was never meant to be this way. 

I might speak about this Jesus whom I love and who loves them – but what if they cannot grasp the message?  Well, then I can still be the sweet “smell” of Jesus to them, and to the staff, and to the other patients, and maybe even family members, while I’m there.  I can be kind, and pleasant, and loving, just as Jesus would.  I can speak words of encouragement to those who care for these patients every day.

In contrast to that visit, yesterday I entertained three young Japanese women for breakfast at my home.  I’m teaching them English.  Preparing for their arrival, my home was filled with the aromas of food in the oven and scented candles. We had SUCH a great time visiting and talking and laughing about all sorts of things.

I hope one day to talk to them about Jesus too, but right now I’m discovering that I need to be content to simply be “the aroma of Christ” to them as well, until the time comes when my words can be understood. 

When I’m in the presence of others – those who know Jesus and those who don’t – I don’t want them to remember the scent of my perfume, or the aromas of food cooking or scented candles – I want the aroma of Jesus to be what lingers in their hearts.

The holiday season is coming and all around us live those who don’t know our Jesus.  How can we be “the aroma of Christ” to them this season – even if we can’t YET speak to them about Him?