E-118 Living Life in Between the First and Second Advent, with Winfree Brisley
How do we find hope and joy while [...]
When You Feel Like Pitching Christmas
When I was a little girl, my mother told me the story of a long ago relative, Amelia Ruth. As a child, she was a notorious spoiled brat. Her parents warned her that Santa rewarded bad behavior with “ashes and switches.” Amelia Ruth didn’t listen. On Christmas morning she ran to her Christmas stocking only to find it full of soot. In predictable behavior she took that stocking, (my mom may have embellished this part) swung it round above her head, and pitched it across the room. A CRACK interrupted her tantrum, for buried in the toe of this stocking was the hand painted china doll she’d asked for, broken. I feel like throwing a tantrum myself. As COVID fatigue sets in and my usual holiday plans could be turning to ashes and soot, am I acting like Amelia Ruth this Christmas? Sure, we experience spilt milk moments, and we try not to cry or pitch a fit. As frustrating as piles of laundry or work deadlines can be, we are used to pushing through. But now that Bing Crosby is on the radio and the familiar smells of the season take us back to Christmas last year, we may feel a panic. What if I spend Christmas alone? What if I can’t take the children to their grandparents’ house? What if I can’t afford to celebrate in the usual ways? So much has been lost in this time of COVID, and I don’t want to lose my usual Christmas, too. This is not the December I want, and I feel like swinging this holiday season along with the rest of 2020 over my head and pitching it across the room. Mary and Joseph would understand how you and I feel. After all, their simple, obedient Jewish lives were hijacked when the angel delivered to them his unexpected birth announcements. When this teenage mom and her new husband stepped into parenting the Promised One, I doubt they imagined what would follow. As we see in the events of Matthew and Luke, the first Christmas could be summed up in the word, unusual. First of all, a barn? Really? If I had been Mary, I would have stomped my foot in Amelia Ruth style and said, I knew I was giving birth to the Messiah, but it didn’t occur to me I’d have to do it in a barn! I doubt any of us would have expected to have donkeys and cows munching on hay and looking on while we panted and pushed, birthing the special baby. Far from the comfort of home and family, was Mary undone as she felt the contractions come? And, what about Joseph? Did he break out into a sweat as he struck out door to door, trying to find shelter for them in Bethlehem? How was he supposed to take care of the Messiah if he couldn’t even secure a hotel room? Life was outside his control, even while obeying God. And after Jesus was finally born, when Joseph gazed at the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, were his own dreams of being a dad for the first time subjugated to the reality in front of him, being an earthly father to the Son of God? But the surprises did not stop there. This unusual barnyard scene was interrupted by an unexpected group of visitors, a scruffy band of excited shepherds barging in with tales of singing angels, shining light, and tidings of comfort and joy. In the middle of this first (and very unusual) Christmas day, what did Mary do? In the midst of what seemed to be ashes and switches, did she complain, pitch a fit, get mad at God or the circumstances He put them in? Did she ever stomp her foot and say, I don’t like this! Luke tells us what Mary did in Luke 2:19. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Our traditional holiday celebrations are mere shadows of what Mary saw in these unusual days of the first Christmas – things she pondered. Every year I’ve untangled yards of Christmas lights, yet God decked the first Christmas sky with “the glory of the Lord” shining on the shepherds (Luke 2:9). I remember my daddy stretching off the top of a ladder to stick the star on our gigantic Christmas tree. But, during Mary’s Christmas, God Himself hung a star over His Baby’s house to guide the Magi (Matthew 2:9). I’ve worked hard on buying just-right gifts for all on my list, yet God used the Wise Men (not our mere Amazon delivery) to hand deliver treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh—perfectly-timed provisions for Mary’s needy family of three (Matthew 2:11). She saw the unusual and pondered what God was doing. Maybe I should take my Christmas cues from Mary, not Amelia Ruth. Instead of pitching Christmas 2020 with all its disappointments and unusual situations, could I ponder it instead? As I am tempted to wind up my frustration and toss it across the room, could I pause and unwrap what God is giving me to hold this Christmas? If I don’t, could I miss the china doll He’s hidden in the ashes and switches of a pandemic (Isaiah 30:15)? What is God giving me to ponder?...
The Greatest Pregnancy Reveal in History
LAURA BOOZ|GUEST The day I finally saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test, I held my breath. Could this be true? I wondered. My husband and I had trudged through two long years of infertility and were crushed by ghost lines, false positives, and dashed hopes. We longed for a child more than anything else. On my way to work, I stopped by the doctor’s office for a blood test to confirm the pregnancy. The doctor told me to call in later for the results. I went through the motions of teaching poetry and grading papers, but all I could think about was the possibility that I was pregnant. At my first opportunity, I called the doctor’s office and I will never forget the nurse’s response as she looked over my results. She said, “Well it’s very early, but you are pregnant.” Later that day, I saw my husband. You’d think that after all those months of waiting, I would have done a dramatic pregnancy reveal with balloons and clever word play, but I was so shocked that I just blurted out, “I’m pregnant!” We sat together, amazed. We estimated that our baby was the size of the period at the end of this sentence and yet she was already our greatest joy. We talked about what our lives would look like as a mom and dad. We thanked God for granting our relentless request. And then we went to the store to buy the coziest baby blanket on the planet. Learning from Mary’s Pregnancy Reveal When Mary was newly pregnant and just arriving at the home of her cousin, Elizabeth, she did have a dramatic pregnancy reveal. Upon seeing the expectant Mary for the first time, Elizabeth felt her own baby (John) leap in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth exclaimed a blessing upon Mary that affirmed everything the angel had promised to her. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:42-45)...
E-117 Little Hearts Prepare Him Room, with Holly Mackle
In the midst of the hurry and scurry [...]
A Different Kind of Christmas
I’ll admit it. I have always been a Hallmark-watching, over-the-top lover of all things Christmas, but as a parent, I love the holidays differently now. I want my children to love these times as much as I used to, but for me, they are not so “perfect” anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still get excited about the snow, time with family, and the opportunity to focus on and celebrate Christ, but the expectations have changed. I have to keep a calendar reminding me of the band concert, Christmas programs, children’s choir practice, work Christmas party, and the brunch for my Titus 2 group. I feel guilty because some people buy presents for EVERYONE —co-workers, bosses, friends, and the letter carrier—yet I feel like I can barely buy for my immediate family. Not to mention the cards I am supposed to get out, if I do at all. By December 20th I am exhausted, realizing that I failed again to accomplish the holiday tasks I aspired to do, tasks which others seem to accomplish without a hitch. As I ponder this unique 2020 Christmas season, I am convicted when I consider the shepherd’s excitement to see the Christ-child so many years ago. Upon hearing the good news from the angelic assembly, they responded, “‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about’ . . . when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them . . .the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told” (Luke 2:15,17-18,20). Oh, that my family would capture their excitement and embrace the joy of the Advent season! A Mary Season COVID has changed our lives in so many ways this year. It is safe to say our holiday season will change as well. There will likely be fewer holiday activities, less travel, and smaller celebrations. We’ll likely miss the annual school play. Some families may not gather together this season. And only time will tell how the Christmas Eve candlelight service will look. The all too familiar refrain of disappointment will be heard everywhere this December...
Good News for the Cynic This Christmas
My husband knew something was wrong when I said it. He looked up from his phone, “What did you just say?” I repeated, “Christmas. What’s the point anyway?” A new city. A new house. The year had been full of sudden change. Now the holidays were approaching with the pressure of creating magic for our children coming to spend the holidays in a new home. The problem was that there was no magic to give. I was cynical. Tired. And quite frankly, a little depressed. No little kids to buy for. No fun surprise like a puppy or a hard-to-find toy. I couldn’t conjure up the magic I was known for giving, the magic I had grown up with. As a child, I squealed when Santa threw candy through our sliding glass door as Rudolph sailed overhead (my dad may have been nearby throwing candy to bounce off the glass as he distracted us). When I grew older and could handle a hatchet, I marched into our wooded yard to cut my own “Charlie Brown tree” to bedazzle my bedroom. Then as a college student, I could not wait to pull into our driveway at Christmas break knowing Mama had turned on every twinkling light, hit play on the holiday music, and prepared a fire and cup of spice tea for me as I collapsed from dorm room living to home-sweet-home. Fast forward through two and a half decades of putting on a Christmas show for five kids and the chaotic cheer that ensued, myriad Christmas Eve dinners with family and friends, several late entrances into candlelight church services, and I was in a place without memories, with kids too grown to care about Elf on a Shelf, and family miles away...
When Christmas is Not the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
“It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, It's the Hap-happiest season of all… Except....when it's not. In the days leading up to our first Christmas without our youngest child, sixteen-year-old Mark, Harry Connick Jr.'s merry lyrics sharply contrasted with the tears and unending ache in my chest accompanying me every minute of every day. Even the night of his death, Christmas was on our minds. On our way home from the hospital that hot July night, stunned to be leaving without our child, Chuck grabbed my hand and whispered, "Christmas, what will we do about Christmas?" Over twenty years later, I experience joy in this "most wonderful time of the year" but not because it's the hap-happiest season of all. Because it's not. About two weeks before Thanksgiving I begin to feel disorganized, disconnected, and emotionally edgy. Anger and impatience vie for top billing in situations that don't normally rattle me. And every year Chuck reminds me that my root problem is grief. I miss Mark. The freight train of sorrow still surprises me with its ferocity and power. One reason the holiday season is so difficult for grieving Americans is because marketing gurus tap deep into our core need for community and family. Thanksgiving and Christmas are ready made opportunities for stirring up our God-given hunger for peace and whole families. The most effective ads are those that imply their product will produce healthy, conflict-free relationships. Divorce, broken relationships, childlessness, loss of a loved one, financial disaster, singleness, conflict-filled marriage—none of these fit the "hap-happiest time of the year" template. The ads only serve to magnify the holes in our own broken lives. 10 Tips for Christmas Grief Relief...
The Gospel is the Story of Food and What You can Do about It this Season
ASHLEY HALES|GUEST I went grocery shopping today so my [...]
Athanasius and the Incarnation of Christ
When was the last time you read an old book? C.S. Lewis had an opinion on this: “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” Lewis urges Christian readers to step outside of their century to read the “old books.” In fact, he penned these words as part of an introduction to the over 1,600-year-old classic, On the Incarnation by Athanasius. As Christmas nears and we reflect on our Lord Jesus coming in the flesh, let us learn first-hand about the Incarnation from Athanasius, a Christian who suffered greatly to protect the biblical truth that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Who Was Athanasius? Athanasius, an early Church Father, was born sometime during 296-300 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt. The city of Alexandria played a pivotal role in the Eastern Roman Empire. Athanasius grew up during the reign of Diocletian, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and his successor Galerius, both of whom violently persecuted Christians. As a young child, Athanasius saw followers of Christ driven from their homes, tortured, and martyred. Later, as a young adult, Athanasius studied under Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and engaged in the great Trinitarian strife—the Arian controversy. Arius, a priest in Alexandria, denied the divinity of Jesus and taught the heresy that since Jesus is the Son of God, as a son, Jesus had to have a beginning and thus was a created being. He confused many in the early Church by falsely teaching that God the Father alone was truly God, and that Jesus his Son was not God, but instead, was the first and greatest creature made by the Father to accomplish man’s salvation. Bishop Alexander opposed Arius and fought to maintain the true deity of the eternal Christ....
E-81 Hospitality by the Book, with Kathy Stair
How is hospitality an eternal investment? Kathy Stair [...]