Christmas 2013... Another Year Has Passed

As the final hours of Christmas Day wind down, I find myself more in awe of the Advent season than ever before.

I may or may not have admitted this before on Facebook or in this blog, but I used to hide from Christmas. I looked back to see if I had ever commented on this and just how far back it was. I found a post I made on December 24th, 2010. It essentially said the way I had felt for nearly 35 years. There were a lot of friends who died and bad memories that tended to always land right around the end of December.

Even going to a Christian high school, the "reason for the season" seemed dim for me for many years. And on top of that I really started to despise the comercialization. That just seemed to make it worse. I can remember a few Christmas seasons that went fairly well, but it never really kicked in for me until at least 2011.

It was an easy transition. The cause was easy to determine also.

The more committment I made to learning from scripture, the better my life has become. It clearly has an effect on family life. No... it does not make everything (here on Earth) perfect, but, knowing that all of scripture comes together to tell the grand plan of salvation for Man really does make a huge difference.

As my priorities allign with my beliefs, the more important Christmas becomes.

I will tell you a short story from this week and leave it at that for this entry. We do not have a lot of exterior Christmas decorations. We have a lighted pink pig, with wings and a halo. It has a red scarf around its neck.

Yeah... doesn't really fit the topic does it? But... my youngest daughter loves pigs. Her nickname is pig. There are stuffed pigs. pig shaped jewelry boxes and pig flashlights. So there really was no way we were getting out of the store back in 2012 when the lighted yard pig was spotted without buying it.

This year we added a Rudolph... complete with blinking red nose.

That left me with a single strand of white lights. Last year I wrapped them around a metal lawn cross and used it as well. The cross is always in the yard. I do move it from time to time, but it is always out there and has been for at least six years.

When I started to put this all together a few days ago, Rhiannon came out to help (mainly to make sure I installed "her" pig correctly). I pulled the cross out of the ground and laid it aside, simply to reorganize. I put the lights on a small ornamental tree shaped bush.

I then put pig in place. I unboxed the new Rudolph and staked it in place. Then I ran the extension cord and plugged it all in. Everything lit. All would be well and there would be no frantic, last minute search for a new pig.

I then turned around, picked the cross up off the porch and stuck it in the ground in a new location.

I heard an audible sigh.

I turned to see five year old Rhiannon smiling at me. She then said, "For a minute I thought you were going to forget the true meaning of Christmas."

I was stunned. She gets it. She thought I was going to forget the cross.

The words of Christ from Mark 10:15 came immediately to my mind...

"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

My mind shot back to how much I did not care for going to a Christian High School back then. Now I count it as the greatest asset of my past, along with many trials and tribulations. I now see the value in the things I remember from back then. I had an education for those four years with a Christian foundation.

I see that same foundation now in several of my children. Luke and the twins had the advantage of a Christian preschool. Michael, Luke and the twins all have the advantage of being at Evansville Lutheran School (I wish I would have had Michael there before 5th grade... he is now an alumni). My point is that they not only know what they believe, but they can each articulate it fairly well for their current ages.

They pray at the family meals. We adults seldom get the chance to lead the prayer. I have heard Michael now explain communnion very succinctly and accurately several times now. They get it better than I ever did at their ages. God has blessed our family with these opportunities for Christian education.

It simply reinforces what I said earlier. The more we learn, the more Christmas and other church holidays mean to us. I made the comment to a Pastor from one of the Evansville circuit churches the other day that this Advent has left me "speechless." It finally unfurled in this short blog entry.

All I have wanted to listen to this season are the hymns... not the Christmas songs of Bing or the secular stations. I have read LCMS Advent sermons from across the nation this last month. I feel strengthened and blessed and better prepared to talk to others about why my faith is where it is.

Anyway, Christmas is no longer sad for me. The bad things I always anticipated happening are now dim in the rear view mirror. Of course I no longer view death the same way anymore either. Advent and Christmas are now times of fulfillment and awe.

As these last few hours fade, the kids play with presents and tomorrow will be a work day for many. My mind is now focusing on the fact that the church year now runs headlong toward Easter. In just a few short months, we will move from celebrating the arrival of God as an infant to acknowledging the completion of His will in His death and resurrection. All of which had been grandly foretold by the prophets. A manger... then a cross and an empty tomb.

Our Pastor recently lead an depth study of the Gospel of John. It helped. John fills in a lot of things the other Gospels do not, being written later than the first three. He did note that it was odd to be approaching Christmas and discussing the crucifixion at the same time. But one without the other would be moot.

Merry Christmas! Share your faith. Do it in a way that lets Christ do the work. If we do it without Him we will surely mess it up. He will give you the right words.

For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:11 ESV.

In closing, I am going to let my historically curious side (which is also fed by my EMS-tainted humor) relay a new tidbit I was recently made aware of... Everyone is aware of the ancient St. Nicholas. He put coins in children's shoes, paid a dowery once and was known for gift giving. A friend, Mike Eppler, posted a meme on St. Nick with a peice of history I did not know.

St. Nicholas was attendance at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Apparently there was some discor regarding the true divinity of Christ. Arius had taken the view that Christ was merely man. At that, St. Nicholas apparently walked over and (depending on the account) pummeled him, or at least punched him in the face for being a heretic.

I have a new found liking for St. Nicholas.