It’s been a while. I last wrapped up my blog before
moving from one zip code to another back in June. But it’s been tugging at me;
that silly pen sticking its tip in my side.
So here we go. We’re back at it…
It’s the day after Christmas and I have already heard
from several people close to me that their trees are down or will be by the end
of the day. I frowned. I understood. But I still frowned. When the world seemingly starts Christmas a
month early and commercializes it to pieces by the time we actually get to the
babe in the manger come Christmas Eve… well, yes, I see why the tree gets boot
kicked to the curb by 10 am on Christmas Day.
But I can’t do it to mine.
In fact, it is on Christmas day that I actually begin to
enjoy my decorated trees and wreaths. I’m usually too darn busy until then. Now
I can look back and ponder all the grandeur and splendidness of Christmas Eve
worship services. I find myself humming
a choral tune or belting out a carol. I
go back into the worship spaces and just sit, pondering all their meaning… and the
glory of it all.
After all, Christmas has just begun! Actually for Christ
followers, Christmas is one day but Christmastide runs for 12 days; hence, the
Twelve Days of Christmas! And that whole war on Christmas? It is no war. We
Christ followers actually placed our holiday over an already firm standing
secular holiday called by many “The Winter Solstice” and by others simply “The
Holiday Season”. We, as many other
cultures and religions, overlap our Advent Season and then Christmastide, with this
wider winter solstice celebration. No
wars are needed. We aren’t in
competition, really. Or at least, we don’t need to be.
And while I’m at it, that whole “keep Christ in Christmas”
thing and the “let’s not X Christ from Christmas” thing? It is up to Christians
to keep Christ in our Christmas celebrations; not others outside our
faith. It would be like expecting them
to worship our God because we are called to.
(Ooops. Bad example. We do that too..) But the X thing, it’s not taking
out anything. It turns out “Xmas” is not a non-Christian version of
“Christmas”. The “X” actually indicates the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short
for the Greek (New Testament language), meaning “Christ”. So “Xmas” and
“Christmas” are equivalent in every way except one has fewer letters. Poor
thing. It gets booted to the curb too.
Ahhhh, the perils of war… Maybe it’s time to unlace our
combat boots.
My hope is this: That both Advent and Christmastide will
be for all Christ followers a time of expressing the very love that Christ
calls us to all year. Then, truly there would be peace on earth. I’m heading home from work here soon to sit
in front of my Christmas tree and ogle over its beauty and the way each
twinkling light reminds me of the Light of Christ in my life. If your tree is already down, that’s okay.
You are welcome to stop by and sit at the base of mine. It’ll be up for another ten days or so,
anyway. Merry Christmas my fellow
brothers and sisters in Christ! Merry Christmas!
