Christmas Eve /Christmas, 2016

              In our family everyone has a Christmas stocking, even the adults. When I was a boy (said the old geezer) I simply used one of my father’s work socks. It worked just fine. But now, each stocking has the name of the person to whom it belongs, either embroidered or spelt in glitter. Part of the stocking tradition is that we, for some reason, are the guardians of the Christmas Stockings, once Christmas is over. (At least that way, we get invited back for next year.)

As our family grows through marriage or grandchildren, a new stocking is added to the bunch. Some of them are a little tattered and worn. Some are real fancy. Susan still has hers from her childhood although it is makes only a token appearance on Christmas Eve.  A newer one has replaced it to be filled. All of them go up on Christmas Eve. The fireplace is getting a little crowded.

My older brother once put up a pair of our Dad’s fishing waders. I was young enough to be quite chagrined. In the morning, he found it full of newspaper, except for a few things at the very bottom. Served him right!

                There is always something mysterious about Christmas stockings no matter how old one gets.  On Christmas Eve, they are set out or hung up and very empty, at first.  Then by morning, they are bursting at the seams with good things. Some of the stocking stuffers are practical and useful like a hair brush or pairs of socks. But sometimes, too, they have little surprises in them – some techno gizmo or a favourite magazine. Sometimes there is jewelry. Sometimes, it’s a puzzle toy. And always, there are candies and chocolate and other sweet treats. In our tradition, we drop a clementine or orange in the toe of each stocking.  There are usually a few other gifts set beside the stockings, as well.

                On Christmas morning, we all enter into the living room together at the same time. Sometimes, we have drawn names  for the filling of the stockings, with a set price limit. Each person looks for the stocking with their name. And the fun begins.  It is as much fun to see what each other “got in their stockings” as it is opening one’s own. Our kids are very creative and ingenious when it comes to the filling of these stockings.

                On Christmas Eve, the manger in Bethlehem is just an empty, unfilled, normal, old manger, nothing very special about it. One probably could have found others in town that night. The wind may have whistled through the cracks in the walls. There may have been holes in the roof.  There may have been mice in the cattle feed. There may have been that eye-watering aroma that comes with a barn full of animals. That empty manger was all that Mary and Joseph had in which to lay their new born child, Jesus, down.

                But on Christmas morning the manger is transformed and is full of good news and joy, of peace and goodwill. As we unpack the meaning of what happened over night we find our names embroidered in the sparkle of God’s Love.  Here in a manger God bestows to the world the One who will lead the Way to new hope, new faith, new life, new justice, new creation. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life,” (John3:16).

                I pray that all your hearts and spirits will be filled this Christmas with the Love, Compassion and Grace of God in Jesus.

                Blessings, one and all!

Dale