Turning Our Thoughts Toward Christmas

 Thanksgiving and Black Friday have come and gone.  We have gathered with family, feasted on turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad and pecan pie, watched a few football games, played with the kids and enjoyed the sweet slumber that only tryptophan can provide.  We survived Black Friday and celebrated a few bargains and did our part to fuel the American economy. 

 This week we will unpack Christmas decorations.  When the children were growing up, we always celebrated with a live tree.  In Minnesota we climbed aboard a horse-drawn sleigh, bundled against the cold, our daughter holding a bunny in her lap as a hand-warmer, and personally picked out a tree from the hillside.  We hauled it home, stood it in the living room, showered it with lights and ornaments.  But, a few years ago, we opted for an artificial tree.  It loses something in the fragrance and the romance of it all but it is easier.

 My wife loves Christmas.  She starts watching Hallmark Christmas shows before Thanksgiving.  And, once the turkey has surrendered its life to our gratitude, she decorates for the season. 

 I have to admit I enjoy seeing the old decorations taking their place throughout the house.  They are more than plaster, plastic, wood and glue.  They are charged with memories of Christmases past: the snowman knitted by my wife’s mother, the handmade ornaments when our children were small, the Nativity scene we bought in Bethlehem, others far too numerous to list.

 Metropolitan cities and small towns light up the land with Christmas lights.  Neighborhoods are transformed.  Shopping centers echo the sounds of silver bells and Christmas carols.  All of our decorations, along with The Nutcracker, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Miracle on 34th Street make it a magical time of year.   I think God takes pleasure when we enjoy the Christmas celebrations.

 Beneath and behind all our treasured holiday traditions lies the simple message that changes everything. “God became flesh and dwelt among us.”  We are not disconnected from the Creator.  In Jesus He chose to enter into our suffering, to show us a better way, to demonstrate His love, forgive our sins and give us eternal life.  When Jesus was born, everything changed! There is good reason to celebrate!

 All of the Christmas busy-ness can muffle the deeper message of the season. The birth of Jesus was not an escape from the burdens and realities that we all face.  God became flesh to engage our humanity with all of our foibles, sufferings and sin.  He sent His Son to overcome prejudice, pride, resentment and hate.  He conquered the grave and  lifted us to new heights of hope, joy, love and life.

 “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone,” (Hebrews 2:9).

Thanksgiving Thoughts 2022

 This is Thanksgiving week, 2022.  The first snow is melting outside my window as I write. Yesterday we spent the afternoon sledding on the hill behind our house with our younger grandchildren, ages 11, 9 and 6.  It was a glorious day for grandparents in their 70s who are still healthy enough to mount a sled and tumble down the hill without ending up in Urgent Care or the nursing home.

 On Thursday, we are expecting all our grandchildren to be at our house and two of our three children with their spouses.  My wife has been shopping for a week. She has the menu planned: traditional turkey and ham, mashed potatoes (that I will peel and chop), corn bread dressing (her mother’s southern recipe), gravy, green beans, salad (both vegetable and fruit), cranberries, and, last but not least, our traditional pecan pie baked by our daughter who cooks it just the way my mother did.

 Every family, I suppose, has their traditions for this particular day, traditions filled with memories. But, as we age, the empty spaces continue to grow.  Our parents, who bestowed upon us our earliest memories for this holiday have long since left this earth.  My wife’s mother died unexpectedly in her sleep the day after we celebrated Thanksgiving at their house in 1986.  It was the year  our daughter was born who is now the mother of the children who keep us young sledding in the snow.

 This is a uniquely American holiday, a time set aside to give thanks with family and friends. From the first it has been a multi-cultural day.  Most trace its earliest roots to the Plymouth Colony that landed in in Plymouth, Mass. In 1620.  Half of the colonists died during the first year. Perhaps many more would have had it not been for the assistance of the Wapanoag Indians who welcomed them.  In spite of their losses, they gave thanks in a feast in 1622 that included the Indians who outnumbered them 2:1.

 We are no longer simply Anglo-European Americans. In fact, we never have been.  There are at least 350 different languages spoken in homes in the United States making us one of the most linguistically diverse populations on earth.  We are Americans of every stripe and color and language.  This week American families and friends of different ethnicities and languages will gather to to give thanks for God’s goodness and His grace. The foods will vary from house to house as will the words spoken.  The absence of loved ones will remind us that we are mortal men and women.  The laughter of our children will inspire us for a better future.

 Thanksgiving can give us a preview of Heaven.  John declared in the book of Revelation, “I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” 

 May we all give thanks to the Creator of all that is beautiful and good, and to our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ who has prepared a greater feast awaiting us in Heaven. (Revelation 19:9).

Choices

 In 2010 two men made very different choices.  In Austin, Texas Joseph Stack, bitter and irate about the IRS, set fire to his home, drove to the Georgetown airport and took off in a single engine Piper Cherokee.  Minutes later, in a suicide crash reminiscent of 9-11, he slammed the plane into the IRS building in Austin.  IRS worker, Vernon Hunter died in the flames.  Hunter, 67, was a Vietnam veteran, an usher at the St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Austin and dreamed of another career after retirement. Hunter’s children went on record to say they forgave Joe Stack for killing their father.

 In Dallas, Andisso Andabo, 22, an Ethiopian immigrant who worked as a mechanic, left the Firestone shop were he worked to make a delivery.  Driving along the LBJ freeway in northwest Dallas he saw a car on fire that rolled off the road and landed on its side.  Andabo immediately stopped his truck and rushed to the scene.  With flames spreading from the engine compartment, he saw a thirty-nine-year-old woman trapped inside frozen in terror.  He smashed the front window with his bare hands and ripped it off. With the help of others who arrived on the scene, he pulled the woman from the burning car moments before it was engulfed in flames.  Afterward, Andabo returned to the Firestone shop and went back to work.

 Both of these men made choices. Stack chose to take out his anger, bitterness and resentment in a violent act that took his life and that of an innocent man.  Andisso Andabo chose to risk his own safety to help a stranger in a moment of crisis.  The different choices made by Stack and Andabo reflect different attitudes that each cultivated in private.  Each of us may not know what we would do in a crisis, but we each make choices every day to cultivate attitudes that will determine our actions.  Anger, resentment and entitlement will ultimately produce violence and retaliation.  Humility, compassion and thoughtfulness will ultimately produce sacrificial acts of kindness.

 Jesus defined the term “neighbor” in his famous story about the Good Samaritan who put his life at risk to help a wounded victim who had been robbed and beaten.  After stopping to care for the man’s wounds, he carried him to the nearest inn for lodging.  “The next day,”  Jesus said, “he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

 The attitudes we cultivate, the choices we make and the actions they produce make all the difference in the kind of world we live in.  Choices that lead to violent acts of reprisal create a world filled with enemies that feeds on fear and hatred.  Choices that lead to acts of kindness create a world filled with neighbors who help one another by demonstrating love, acceptance and understanding.

Changing the Conversation

 I try to stay in touch with the news, to be aware of what is happening in the world and our nation.  I prefer written news articles, some in print, most online.  Television newscasts move too slowly, too many commercials and they tend to skim the surface.  Written news is usually more in depth, can be scanned much more quickly and is updated constantly online.

 But lately I have questioned whether I should continue.   Perhaps I should quit reading the news altogether, or at least take a break.  It is almost always depressing.  Everyone seems angry at somebody.  Everyone wants to blame somebody else for their difficulties.  Politicians, athletes, actors and actresses, celebrities of every stripe.  They call each other names and throw insults at one another.  The world has become vitriolic. Maybe the acerbic content is due to the mid-term elections.  Perhaps it will take on a better tone once the elections are behind us.

 Of course, there are exceptions. But the exceptions are often drowned out by the sheer noise of name calling and accusations.

 Jesus had some rather severe warnings for conduct such as this.  He said, “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good for nothing,’ shall be guilty before the Supreme Court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”  (Matthew 5:22).

 There is a better way.  Jesus demonstrated it by his life and in his death choosing to bless rather than to curse those who attacked him.    The Apostle Paul explained it like this:

 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.  Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves that was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:3-5).

 “Therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor. … Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. … Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:25-32).

 We can do little to change what public figures may say or what is reported in the news.  But we can change the conversation. At work, at home and school. When conversations become acerbic we can change the tone.  We can refuse to respond in kind.  We can reduce the rhetoric. “A soothing tongue is a tree of life.”  (Proverbs 15:4).

What Are You Waiting For?

 When I married my wife we repeated the customary wedding vows promising to cherish one another “in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth.” Perhaps we should have added an additional line. Something like. “I promise to wait for you.” Since we married we have waited for each other. We have waited at airports, train stations and bus stops. I have waited on her to put on last-minute makeup and she has waited on me to put down my book or close my computer. When she gave birth to our children, I waited. When I had a motorcycle accident, she waited. In too many ways to enumerate or remember, we have waited on each other. If we added it all up it would be a huge chunk of our lives. And now, it makes me happy. She is worth waiting for.

When we had children, we waited. We waited for their birth. We waited for them when they got out of school. We waited late at night in dark parking lots for their buses to return. We waited for them in the car, the motor running, the clock ticking, knowing we were late to church. We stayed up waiting for them to come home from their first dates. And we waited for them to come home from college.

Waiting is a part of life. We choose to wait for those we love.

That is why God waits for us, because He loves us. Isaiah says, “Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you for the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.” (Isa 34:18). In Jeremiah, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jer. 1:5). God has waited an eternity for you.

We often miss God because we haven’t learned to wait on Him. We blast through busy schedules making quick decisions without taking time to connect with God’s better plan for us. The Psalmist said, “My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation.” (Ps. 62:1) “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.” (Ps. 40:1) The prophet Micah said, “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation.” (Micah 7:7)

Waiting on God involves prayer and finding time to be quiet before Him. Sometimes it includes fasting. But waiting isn’t always about sitting still with our arms folded.

Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened.” The secret is to remain open to God’s direction and to listen to His voice while we constantly seek and knock. David wrote, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.” (Ps. 27:13-14).