Christmas Words

Hello, friends!

A few days ago, I asked the Facebook world to choose my next writing prompt from these options:

• Emmanuel
• Noel
• Advent
• Goodwill
• Nativity
• Holy

All of these words are obviously based around a theme - Christmas. But how often this December have you found yourself basing your Christmas season around different words? Here are some of mine just from the past week:

• Pandemic
• Exhaustion
• Not the same
• Fear
• Irritation
• Don't

The winning word from my Facebook post was "Emmanuel." We are probably most familiar with this word from the Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." While this hymn certainly talks about the Son of God appearing to us, as he did on Christmas Day, it is really talking about a future event.

"O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive, Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!"

We are the captive Israel, held here in this world of sin and doubt. We are waiting for the Son of God to appear, for Emmanuel to come back. That's what we pray for every time we say, "Come, Lord Jesus." Those aren't idle words. That is a hopeful, powerful prayer, in which we are trusting that Jesus will come back someday and rescue us from everything that causes us pain.

What shall we do in the meantime, you ask?

(It's so convenient that you always ask exactly what I'm going to write about next.)

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" gives us some ideas there, too. It talks about following in the path of wisdom, obeying the Commandments, trusting in God's mighty power and victory, and desiring God above divisions. 

Most of all, the refrain reminds us to "Rejoice!"

We can't forget about the items on the second list I mentioned above. We can't just put those things on a shelf and pretend they don't exist. That's not how life works, unfortunately. We can, however, continually remind ourselves and each other that God loves and strengthens us, no matter what is going on around us. "Emmanuel" means "God with us," and he is, every day.

A Christmas Doggie Devotional

Hello, friends! Merry, merry, merry Christmas! I'm writing to you from my garage, where my dog and I have been engaged in a celebratory game of fetch for over an hour.

(Before anyone says, "Why are you not with your family?!", let me reassure you, I will be seeing my family soon. My nephew, along with a few other people probably, will be in Urbandale over New Year's, so that's when I'm going home.)

Now, back to that celebratory game of fetch. Pastor Jay once told me that you can make a spiritual analogy out of anything, so here's my attempt. :p

My dog lives in my garage, because I'm not allowed to have her in the house. Every morning, the first thing I do is get up and let her out of her crate. She is beyond excited to see me. We usually go for a walk or play some fetch before I feed her. Then I have to go to work, so I lock her in her crate again.

When I come home for lunch, the first thing I do is let her out of her crate. She's beyond excited to see me. We go for a short walk and I let her hang out outside on her tether (which is no longer attached to any windows) while I eat on the kitchen. Then I have to make the long trek across the parking lot back to work, so I lock her back in the crate.

When I get off of work, I return home and let my dog out of her crate. She's beyond excited to see me. This is usually when we go for a nice long walk, often an hour or more. We play fetch in the backyard or "find-the-treat" in the garage. I feed her around 4:30. However, I do have to leave her by herself outside or in the garage while I am productive (or unproductive, as the case may be)  inside. She's always rather sad when I leave her alone. She checks the kitchen door every few minutes to see if I happen to want to play fetch. Then, when I go to bed, I lock her in her crate and leave her for the night.

Now, I tell you all of these mundane details about the life of Kensi for a reason, I promise. Kensi is what every good Christian should be: she is enthusiastic, persistent, dedicated, and loving. Just like Kensi, I should be enthusiastic about my God. I should be persistent, constantly checking to see if my God has anything new to do or say. I should be dedicated, always willing and eager to do whatever it is that my God sets before me. And finally, I should be loving. I should emulate my loving God in everything I say and do.

Notice I said "should." I'll be honest with you - I don't do those things; at least, I don't do them all the time.

But there is this wonderful holiday. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called Christmas. On Christmas, Jesus Christ was born. Jesus Christ came to earth to fulfill all of our "shoulds." Jesus was enthusiastic, persistent, dedicated and loving from the day he was conceived to the day he died - and to the day he rose again, and still even to today. There has never been better news in all of eternity.

Because of Jesus, my "shoulds" turn into "cans" - as in, my "I should be enthusiastic" turns into "I can be enthusiastic - in Christ." My "I should be persistent" turns into "I can be persistent - in Christ." My "I should be dedicated" turns into "I can be dedicated - in Christ." And my "I should be loving" turns into "I can be loving - in Christ." Just like the angel told Mary, "Nothing will be impossible with God."

Now, before I finish this blog, there's another spiritual analogy I want to make. My dog's whole life revolves around me coming into the garage. When I'm not present, she sleeps. End of story. This is yet another way in which I can copy my wonderful animal. My whole life should revolve around my God. It doesn't - but because Jesus's did, mine can, too. And the great thing is that I don't have to wait for my God to come into my garage, so to speak. He's with me always, and that is never more evident then on Christmas.

From me and mine, to you and yours, with love, merry Christmas. I pray that you keep the hope of Christ's birth in your heart today and always.

Christmas Reflections

Hello, friends! Today I want to tell you about something that has consumed my work life for the past week: our Christmas program. Being the enterprising young DCE that I am, I wrote it myself. Let me tell you, I'm having far too much fun. But as Pastor House said, if I'm not having fun, no one else will be either!

The program will be at 5:30 pm on a Sunday night. When people arrive, they'll be sorted into groups, where they will have devotional time and learn their portion of the skit. Then, at 6:30, all the groups will come together and perform their skits, which will all fit together to tell the Christmas story. After the program, we'll have a big party with music and dinner and crafts and a photo booth and all kinds of fun stuff.

The skits tell the story of an overdramatic talk show host who is very enthusiastic about his two main guests: Mary and Joseph. Throughout the skits, he gets more and more irritated, because Mary and Joseph keep bringing other people onto the stage (angels, shepherds, "wise people"). By the end of the interview, the host realizes that Mary and Joseph are not the only important people in the Christmas story, and Jesus is the most important person of all.

I'll be honest, I was inspired to write this post because of all the ridiculousness about the Starbucks cups. I wanted to write about the true meaning of Christmas, which has absolutely nothing to do with what's printed on a coffee mug. I would say "Keep calm and remember Jesus" - but that's not really a reason to be calm, is it? The news of Jesus's birth is reason to be extremely excited! So jump up and down, run around in circles, hug everyone you see, shout in the streets, and remember Jesus! Or, better yet - preach the good news. Feed someone who is hungry. Clothe someone who is cold. Hold the hand of someone who is hurting. And remember Jesus, who was born in a cold stable, raised as a simple carpenter, and certainly never had a hot cup of coffee.