(December 19, 1990)
Hardly any snow, busy schedule filled with term paper due dates and final exams, now all of a sudden it is Christmas. We only had a couple of weekends to prepare, and I don’t think anyone will get any cards this year. It just doesn’t seem like the holidays should happen right away. Why did I think Christmas would wait until I was ready for it?
So, other people are caught off guard too. Some won’t have much of a celebration, like the soldiers in the Middle East. Some families will be entangled in crisis situations and others will not care at all about Christmas, either indifference or a different holiday to celebrate.
In fact, there were a lot of people caught off guard that first Christmas too. While the date is debatable, the occasion is not; a child WAS born in a manger and His birth WAS announced several hundred years before it happened. Still, not everyone was ready.
Almost no one. Mary had to be ready. There is something about being pregnant that allows no procrastination. When a baby decides to be born, who can stop it? Joseph would have preferred this all happen at home. Who wants to take his pregnant wife on a donkey ride when she is nine months along? But they had been summoned to Bethlehem for a census... so Jesus could be born there, just as had been prophesied hundreds of years before.
When they arrived, the no one had room for company. They were not ready for Jesus. But there was a spare room of sorts. A stable, smelly as it likely was, made a better delivery room than out in the streets. The owner of the stable didn’t celebrate the birth though. As far as we know, he didn’t even know it happened.
There were some shepherds that were not ready either. We can tell by their fear. When the angels came to announce “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” these fellows nearly had heart attacks from fright. They handled the news well though. They hurried to Bethlehem to see what was going on. Out of all the unprepared people, they handled the event better than most of us do... “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (Luke 2:20).
The Magi were ready. They knew the prophecies, they prepared gifts fit for a king, wrapped them, and as soon as they saw the star, headed out to find the Christ child. Even though it took them a while to get there and they missed the main event, it was better late than never.
Herod was not ready though, at least not to celebrate. He was threatened by the Magi’s announcement that they were seeking the One to be born “king of the Jews” so he cowardly murdered all the children two years old and under in hopes of getting rid of this “king” that might take over his throne.
Getting back to right now, I guess I am more ready than I thought. Jesus entered my life with peace and good will in the early seventies, so whether His actual birth date is December 25 or not, I can glorify and praise God for all that I have heard and seen of Him since then. I didn’t know the prophecies as a young Christian, yet now, as I read them, I’m still amazed at the accuracy of their fulfilment.
As for gifts, the Bible doesn’t say He wants our gold, frankincense or myrrh. Instead, He offers us His gift: Himself, and with that, forgiveness and eternal life. Are we ready for that? If so, He wants one gift in return, with no wrappings. It is the submission of our lives -- the most important giving we could ever do, at Christmas or any other time.
Showing posts with label first Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first Christmas. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2015
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
How is Christmas supposed to be? ............. Parables 144
Children plop globs of silver foil on plastic pine and frown, “Is this the way it’s supposed to be?” Fathers struggle with sputtering strings of colored lights while mothers mutter, “Is this the way it’s supposed to be?”
A stressed out holiday shopper grumbles, “Bah, humbug! This isn’t the way Christmas is supposed to be.”
Everyone has their idea of how Christmas is supposed to be, yet hectic shopping trips still tie knots in places other than on top of red and green packages. Beloved childhood traditions woefully go AWOL, never to be celebrated again. Even gift-buying is polluted; purchasing with all the wrong reasons. And somehow Christmas doesn’t seem quite right.
Is it too late to remove the layers of artificial glitter? Is there a fine golden glow of satisfying reality buried beneath it all? What is Christmas supposed to be anyway?
Luke’s gospel runs the story of the first Christmas (which likely wasn’t December 25), but lo, it was even more crowded in ancient Bethlehem than modern West Edmonton Mall! Noisy thousands were there for a census. It may have been a bit better on the outskirts where the shepherds put their sheep to bed, but for the most part, there goes the calm, quiet Christmas card scene of fond imagination.
Not only that, Mary and Joseph found themselves in a stable for the night. Stables smell; even with mounds of clean, fresh mown hay. No fragrant spruce tree, no warm, glowing lights, no decorations, no soft background music either, nor tantalizing smells of roast turkey and apple cinnamon eggnog. So much for a prototype that appeals to the senses.
The Magi came with gifts, but that was two years later and under duress. The givers furtively left town, avoiding the local governing authorities who later slaughtered hundreds of babies hoping that the Christmas baby would be included in the blood bath. So the first Christmas didn’t even have presents -- instead it looked forward to horrendous mass murder.
But before the commercialized, what-we-have-now Christmas begins to seem more appealing, there was a sequence of events that first Christmas worth an annual rerun. It is from Luke 2, where the shepherds were told the good news - the Christ of God had finally arrived.
Their Christmas began with DISCOVERY: “So it was, when the angel had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.’” (vs.15)
Simple shepherds believed God’s messenger and discovered profound Truth wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. He still waits to be discovered today, no longer a babe but the risen Lord who bids hectic Christmas shoppers and all others weary and heavy laden, “Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest for your souls.”
After the shepherds found Jesus, they SHARED THEIR DISCOVERY: “Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled.” (17,18)
When they found this unique newborn babe, they could have kept the moment for themselves. Besides, hearing angels? Indeed! God in a manger? Sure! They risked rejection by telling. Some might think they’d had some liquid “cheer.” But these joy-filled shepherds celebrated the first Christmas by taking their good news to everyone.
Thirdly, the shepherds went back to their regular jobs, but they went without a hangover, without complaints that their gifts didn’t fit or that the kids made too much noise over the holidays. Instead, and from then on, they LIVED CHANGED LIVES, “glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen.”
A stressed out holiday shopper grumbles, “Bah, humbug! This isn’t the way Christmas is supposed to be.”
Everyone has their idea of how Christmas is supposed to be, yet hectic shopping trips still tie knots in places other than on top of red and green packages. Beloved childhood traditions woefully go AWOL, never to be celebrated again. Even gift-buying is polluted; purchasing with all the wrong reasons. And somehow Christmas doesn’t seem quite right.
Is it too late to remove the layers of artificial glitter? Is there a fine golden glow of satisfying reality buried beneath it all? What is Christmas supposed to be anyway?
Luke’s gospel runs the story of the first Christmas (which likely wasn’t December 25), but lo, it was even more crowded in ancient Bethlehem than modern West Edmonton Mall! Noisy thousands were there for a census. It may have been a bit better on the outskirts where the shepherds put their sheep to bed, but for the most part, there goes the calm, quiet Christmas card scene of fond imagination.
Not only that, Mary and Joseph found themselves in a stable for the night. Stables smell; even with mounds of clean, fresh mown hay. No fragrant spruce tree, no warm, glowing lights, no decorations, no soft background music either, nor tantalizing smells of roast turkey and apple cinnamon eggnog. So much for a prototype that appeals to the senses.
The Magi came with gifts, but that was two years later and under duress. The givers furtively left town, avoiding the local governing authorities who later slaughtered hundreds of babies hoping that the Christmas baby would be included in the blood bath. So the first Christmas didn’t even have presents -- instead it looked forward to horrendous mass murder.
But before the commercialized, what-we-have-now Christmas begins to seem more appealing, there was a sequence of events that first Christmas worth an annual rerun. It is from Luke 2, where the shepherds were told the good news - the Christ of God had finally arrived.
Their Christmas began with DISCOVERY: “So it was, when the angel had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.’” (vs.15)
Simple shepherds believed God’s messenger and discovered profound Truth wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. He still waits to be discovered today, no longer a babe but the risen Lord who bids hectic Christmas shoppers and all others weary and heavy laden, “Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest for your souls.”
After the shepherds found Jesus, they SHARED THEIR DISCOVERY: “Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled.” (17,18)
When they found this unique newborn babe, they could have kept the moment for themselves. Besides, hearing angels? Indeed! God in a manger? Sure! They risked rejection by telling. Some might think they’d had some liquid “cheer.” But these joy-filled shepherds celebrated the first Christmas by taking their good news to everyone.
Thirdly, the shepherds went back to their regular jobs, but they went without a hangover, without complaints that their gifts didn’t fit or that the kids made too much noise over the holidays. Instead, and from then on, they LIVED CHANGED LIVES, “glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)