Wednesday, December 7, 2016

                When I was a kid, I can recall that there were two significant, Christmas catalogues that found their way into our home. Both Sears and Eaton’s department stores produced thick, glossy catalogues. It goes to show old I am becoming to remember that.  But back then in the good ol’ days I do remember how I loved to pour through the big, toy sections in each of them. They were just enough differences to allow for the maximum potential for creating my Christmas list for Santa. They were well-thumbed and ear-marked by Christmas day.

                I thought that this year’s Wish Book was a bit skimpy measured by the standards of my childhood. It just seems to lack something. For one thing, it seems smaller and not as much in it. I skimmed through it just once and it now sits in the magazine pile. In fact, I am not sure even where it really is. I would have to go digging for it in order to find it.  But there are so many other alternatives, especially on-line, that I probably don’t need it anyway.

                Expectations can be very high about Christmas celebrations especially when we compare them with the ones that stand out in our memories. So, I am really thinking about those of us who may be finding Christmas a little skimpy this year. It doesn’t seem as full as it used to be. Where did the anticipation go?  When did the merry in Christmas disappear? Why is there no jingle in our Jingle Bells?  Why do we sometimes forget where we threw Christmas and what pile of stuff it is buried under? Why do some of us have to go digging through old piles of old news to find Christmas Good News? What are the alternatives that offer happiness, wishes and contentment?

Perhaps, some are haunted by past disappointments, sadness and stress which they associate with Christmas. Indeed, that is one catalogue of emotions which one would really like to dump in the recycle bin.

                God’s answer go the challenges and even dismay of living has always been freshly creative.  “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,” (Isaiah 43:19). God shakes it up. God stirs it up. God does not settle for last year’s wish lists. 

In Advent and Christmas, in the anticipation of the coming of Jesus into the world, God sends us a dynamic liberation from the old, tired, skimpy forms of living.  One might even say that there is an Advent/ Christmas message in Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:8) Or as The Message renders this verse, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.”

It might sound somewhat trite to say that it isn’t Christmas that has changed as much as we have. We have lets its commercialism, its pace, its busyness, its demands pile up and some of us get to the point that we would like to toss it and almost forget it.  Mind you, thankfully, there are many wondrous, inspiring souls who delight in every measure of Christmas and their example is a guiding  star right to Bethlehem.

                So, go find your Christmas again! Open up the pages of this Story and let it fill you will anticipation, hope, energy, peace, joy, love and even merriment. That’s a pretty good wish list…

Dale