Holy-days
This is not a shout-out; rather just reflections. Before these words hit the page it was a brainstorming time between my husband and I, and hopefully the Holy Spirit as well.
It’s been a strange year, with many changes, and this holiday season is no less. We tried hard to make it to Arizona to be with Eddie’s side of the family, whom we haven’t seen since the wedding, and the thoroughfare was a bit more than we could make… and then we looked towards the Lang side and realized that we don’t have enough vacation days to go without taking away from when our child comes. So we are here in Joplin, our temporary home, for the holidays. It is good for Eddie and I to learn to be our own family within ourselves.
Yet now that we are to “create” our own Christmas within ourselves, it has given us reason to rethink what we want to do. I walk into our home and automatically yearn for a Christmas tree, lights, cinnamon-scented candles, carols playing, nativities: the whole warmth and ambience that “comes” with the season. A few weeks ago, Eddie decided that we shouldn’t have a Christmas tree or go all out with decorations. It wasn’t hard to agree, and yet I didn’t realize what was being churned in my husband’s mind, though.
A few weeks later he said, “I think that spending time with family and exchanging gifts is fine, but not if we do it in the name of celebrating Christ’s birth,” and it gave way to discussion. We celebrate eachother’s birthdays, not by reminiscing the labor and delivery at the hospital, but the life of the person; who they are and what they’ve done. Yet we do not even grant this to Jesus, and more grotesquely, we turn the holiday (inevitably) into one that is for our pleasure. I think that many families do do it right with a nod to the Advent Calendar and starting off the morning reading the nativity story. But… if Jesus’ thoughts were opened to us… how would he want us to celebrate his birth?? If we are to celebrate his life, it is not just reading from Scripture (which was a certain recorded segment) but literally recalling that he is LIVING AND ACTIVE, and look at how his life is proved daily. How should we celebrate a God’s coming to earth and redeem us? My heart is filled with worship right now!
In the Old Testament we see how God chose certain days for us to especially remember what he has done, even though those things should not be forgotten the rest of the year through. Eddie and I don’t know what we’ll do for Christmas, but we are trying to strip what pagans have done with the holiday and search our hearts. We wonder what the non-believers think when they see us “Christ followers” celebrating Christ’s birth in very materialistic, worldly ways.
Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
Hither by thine help i’ve come.
