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Category: Christmas

It’s The Most Wonderful Time…

“You better hustle your bustle, Missy!” he said to the young girl.
Her small hand holding firm to his as her short legs churned to keep up.
“We don’t want to be late, now. Do we?”
Looking up she saw the broad smile across her Dad’s face.
Eyes glittering, she smiled back and shook her head.

They walked past store windows with bright displays of Christmas trees and gifts. Trains chugga-chugged around the bottom of the trees. Real smoke huffing and puffing from the locomotives.
Characters dressed up in caps and scarfs, heads moving back and forth as carols rang out, stood next to stacks of wrapped boxes.

The man and his daughter walked through a great, revolving door into a huge store. People rushing about with bags and packages in their arms. Others milling about counters sniffing various fragrances. Other children standing next to those people looking bored.

To the escalator the two hurried.
Second floor: Housewares
Hurry around to the next set of moving stairs.
Third floor: Bedding and Curtains.
One more time around the block!
Fourth floor…
Christmas Town!

The young girl looked around, her eyes wide with amazement.
There were trees decorated with all different colors of lights and ornaments.
White puffs that looked like snow covered the floors next to the aisles.
Row after row of toys and elves stood all around them.

At the end of one aisle there was a tall red and white poll standing.
Beneath it there was a team of reindeer pawing the ground and bobbing their heads.
A great, red sleigh sat behind them.

“Hurry, Daddy!” the girl cried. “There’s already a line!”
“You run and get in line,” he said releasing her hand.
As she queued up, she looked back at him.
Her eyes aglow, a great smile that seemed to light up her face.
Soon, she would see, well, you know…

May your hopes and dreams and the anticipation of good things bring you joy as you walk through this most wonderful time of the year.

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Here Comes Santa Claus

Ready or not, Here He Comes!
Hoppin’ and a-Boppin’ right down Santa Claus Lane.

I remember way back when the Sears catalog was the biggest thing in the world. I had no idea where this magical book came from. But, when it arrived I grabbed it and ran! That’s because in the middle of that blessed catalog were page after page of glorious toys!
Everything that a kid could possibly desire could be found in those pages.
I would go to the kitchen to ‘that’ drawer by the phone where the pencils lived and find one with a nice, sharp point.
Then, in my little corner of the world, I would circle all of the full-color pictures of the toys that I would ask that jolly, old Elf to bring me.

I had no idea that my mom would take that catalog later and see what I had circled so that she could make her shopping list.
All I knew was that the stuff that I circled, those things that I then asked every Santa’s Helper in every store we went to, somehow magically appeared under our Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

Hallelujah!

Those were the days! Right?

Simple faith in what appeared in a book.

It wasn’t until I was maybe 7 or 8 years old that I heard that Christmas was really all about celebrating the birthday of someone named Jesus.
And, even when I did hear about that, I really had no clue who this Jesus fella was or why we would celebrate his birthday.

My parents, like many other folks in the late 50s and through the 60s, wanted to live up to a standard of life that told everyone, “Look at us! We made it!”
So, they made sure that we had the requisite Stuff that affluent middle-class folks had. Stuff from the Sears catalog, for instance.

The reason I’m bringing this up today is because I think that my parents, and all those other parent from that era, taught their children well.
We do like us some ‘stuff.’
We enjoy the comfort that our status provides.
There’s something ‘nice’ about having kept up with the Jones’s all of these years.

But, it’s really kinda sad.

Every day I hear on the news, usually as the lead story, how Americans spent more than 7 billion dollars on stuff on Black Friday.
So-called experts expect today’s Cyber Monday sales to set all kinds of records.
People are spending freely in order to snag their SWAG.

Yeah. Top story.
Biggest EVER!

While somewhere later in the show, or below the fold in the newspaper, the story of the teenager who was shot and killed over the weekend is reported.
Near the end we get to find out that dozens died in this or that conflict somewhere in the world.
Poverty and disease don’t even make the final edits.
The fact that millions will go hungry this season doesn’t register.
Oh, but, the last story will be that ‘feel good’ one about a church feeding 1,200 people on the holiday.

We need a feel good story, don’t we?

Because all of the time and money we spend engorging ourselves on stuff that we neither really want nor need makes us feel a bit guilty.
Well, maybe for a minute or two.

Yeah. We caught up to the Jones’s. And, the Smith’s and Clark’s.
But, at what cost?
Our soul?

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The Nativity – Revisited


Nativity

Today I’m going to repost my take on Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem. As anyone who has read me knows, I do not hold to the whole “Away In A Manger” story. That story really has nothing at all to do with 1st Century Palestinian life. I believe that this story is a better representation of that. Plus, this opens us to a greater understanding of who Jesus was and our part in His family.

The caravan moved slowly up toward Jerusalem. It had been a long journey from Galilee through Samaria. We could not travel very fast because of the young, pregnant woman. Most of the caravan stopped in Jerusalem. We, however, had a few more miles to go to get to our ancestral home of Bethlehem.

We entered the town and located the home of Joseph’s cousin. Entering, we greeted those already gathered. “Shalom! Baruch hashem Adonai!” “Peace! Bless the name of the Lord!” Unpacking our donkeys, we noticed that there were a lot of people already present. It seems that the whole clan had answered Caesar’s demand that we return for this census. Joseph helped Mary up to the living quarters while I got fodder for the donkeys. As I turned to climb the stairs I saw Joseph gesturing angrily.

“No guest room?! My wife is going to give birth at any moment! You must make room for her and the child!”

“No, we cannot. There are too many people. We cannot have one room given to her alone.”

“Wait,” one of Joseph’s aunts said. “We can fix a place for her down below. There is plenty of fresh straw. And, we can put blankets down to help make her more comfortable.”

Mary, being young and new to the family looked at Joseph and nodded. She was already suspect, being pregnant already. She did not want to give the family any more reason to look down on her.

Evening came. Mary was having contractions every few minutes. One of the aunts acted as midwife. They made Mary as comfortable as possible.

Joseph was upstairs with the rest of the family. He was pacing the floor. One cousin scolded him, “Sit down and relax! Everything will be fine. This is not the first child ever born!”

But, everyone knew that many first pregnancies did not end well. Especially, when the mother was as young as Mary. In addition, both Joseph and Mary were anxious about the child. That strange man that had appeared nine months ago had said some very strange things about this child. As the birth drew near, the young parents wondered what kind of creature was about to enter their world.

It seemed as though Mary had been laboring for hours. With a final push the child arrived. With a cry, the child took his first breath. The midwife lifted the child and tied off the umbilicus.

“It’s a boy!”

Joseph gave a sigh of relief. The others began to pour bowls of wine and a party celebrating the birth of a first-born son began. They sang and danced and drank. When Mary was cleaned up and the child wrapped in clean cloths, Joseph was summoned to come down. He looked compassionately at Mary. She was so strong and brave…no longer a child. Joseph reached into the feeding trough in which his newborn son had been laid. He picked him up.

“My son, Yeshua!

A little later I looked up and saw a small group of people entering the house. By the staves that they were carrying I could tell that they were shepherds.

“Who let this rabble in?” I thought. Shepherds were not usually welcome among respectable people. They walked over to where the child lay sleeping.

“We were out in the field tending the sheep. Suddenly, there was a great light in the sky! We feared that something was going to take our sheep and harm us! Then, we heard a voice saying that a child had been born…here…in Bethlehem. The voice said that this child is the Messiah who we have been waiting for!”

Another shepherd spoke up saying, “Then there was a great host praising God! They gave God glory and said that peace was to reign between God and those whom God favors!”

We poured bowls of wine for the shepherds and continued to celebrate throughout the night.

However, Mary had a puzzled look on her face. She said nothing.!

May God Bless you all and Merry Christmas

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