The lights are on the house, the Christmas tree is decorated (even with lights that don't work) and the house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The only thinking missing is the smell of Christmas cookies coming from the kitchen. In our family, it has always been a tradition to make Grandma's Christmas cookies. The cookies are always a big hit as they are shaped like Santa Claus, and Christmas Trees and stars and Gingerbread men. They are just your normal sugar cookie, but they were Grandma's sugar cookies. Perhaps when my wife gets back from California, she will fill the house with the smell of baked cookies. Or maybe Abbie and I will get adventuresome and make them ourselves, but that is another post.
Christmas is a wonderful time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I mean the whole season is named after Him, so it seems pretty important to have Him in the center of it. Some people go to the extent to not even decorate for Christmas, or even celebrate it on the 25th. They do not buy gifts for their family or friends. The reasoning for their activities is that we do not buy gifts for other people on our birthday, so why do we buy gifts for other people on Jesus' birthday?
However, at the Worley household we do buy gifts for one another. We have gifts under our tree even today. We celebrate Christmas Eve with the opening of gifts from one another. We take our time and open one gift at a time and watch each person open their gift. It is not mass confusion, but a time of deliberate celebration of each gift that was given by love to that person. It is just one small way that we demonstrate our love for one another.
On Christmas morning we wake up to see what the man in the red suit brought to us. Yes, we celebrate Santa Claus at the Worley household. He always brings something to put in our stockings. Sometimes he places a pair of socks or some candy. Sometimes he places things in them that are funny and fun and other times he places things in them that are practical and beneficial. It is a great time as we sit around the living room, drinking coffee, laughing and giving hugs and kisses liberally. In all the chaos and confusion that goes on in the world, it is nice just to sit down and enjoy this special time together.
For some people when they hear that we actually mention Santa Claus in our Christmas they cringe with fear. How could I as a pastor allow such an idea to creep into our celebration of the birth of Jesus? I must not really understand what Christmas is all about? Yet at the Worley household, Jesus remains the center of our Christmas. Our children have known the truth of Christmas from day one. We read the Christmas story every year. We talk about Jesus at Christmas time and celebrate the many blessings He has given to us as a family. Our house is full of special nativity scenes that we have purchased in a variety of countries. Some were very expensive and others were very inexpensive.
One year we purchased a nativity scene to place under our tree and it became the favorite object for our little ones to play with at Christmas time. It was wonderful to watch our children play with the nativity set and watch them retell the story in their playing. I know that it warmed God's heart to watch his little ones reliving the story of our Lord's birth. Christmas is about Christ and without Him their would be no Christmas. As a matter of fact without Jesus, how could we really have a happy holiday. If there had been no Jesus, there could be no salvation. What's happy about that?
Perhaps you do not celebrate Christmas in your house the way we celebrate at our house. You might not give gifts or receive gifts. You might not decorate or even celebrate the season. You might be a bah humbug type of guy. But I love Christmas and the the tremendous blessings God has given to me as a person. He demonstrated His love for me by sending Jesus to provide salvation for me. He has blessed me with a wonderful family and many friends in which I can demonstrate my love for them. At Christmas time we celebrate faith, we celebrate family and we celebrate friends. I look forward to celebrating with you in the weeks that come. I pray God will bless you this Christmas season.
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