Profound words

As I've said before, I'm married to a pretty wonderful guy. Here are some thoughts he's prepared for a church program Friday night.

That “Time of the Year”

“Are you getting the Christmas spirit?” It’s funny, as many times as we’ve heard that, we may not be able to define it, but we know what it means. The stores thrive on it because something puts us in the mood to shop. Sure, it’s crowded and rushed, but there’s a whole cluster of warm associations and memories: family coming home, good food, music, bright lights, brightly-colored ads, and stores and clothing. It’s just so … so … festive! Before recorded history, people probably celebrated the time when the days stopped getting shorter and started getting longer as signifying hope that life would return to the land. Much later, the Christian church incorporated it into its tradition. The years have combined many ancient and cultural symbols, from Christmas CDs to Christmas specials, from Santa to gift-giving, to become the holiday we enjoy today. Recently, we shake our heads at the odd tug-of-war between “Merry Christmas” and “Season’s Greetings” – between school programs where “Silent Night” has been silenced and we ”rock” around the Christmas tree.

The “True Meaning”

The historical event at the core of this holiday has almost completely vanished from public consciousness. But isn’t Christmas just a tradition? After all, there’s nothing about a Christmas holiday in the Bible. And since it became part of the religious calendar so long after Christ lived and the New Testament was written, we’ve gotten both the year and the time of year wrong (the birth was probably 5-7 B.C., and the time of year was almost surely not winter.) So where does that leave us? Does this charming little story have anything to say in a cynical, modern world?

Perhaps just like God took his window of opportunity to send a very personal message to earth, we have a window of opportunity to bring a very hopeful message to a restless world. Incredibly, God broke into human history with a “whisper”, a threadbare, young couple; a newborn in a feed trough? Come on. … A cosmic shift was set in motion, and hardly anybody noticed. Don’t you see, God acts on His own terms, and those terms have little to do with earthbound power, worldly wealth, and human wisdom. All of those have a limited run on life’s stage and finally leave us hollow and still yearning for more. Remember that seasonal “spirit” I mentioned? Well, there is a Spirit – He’s God’s Spirit, and He calls to our spirits, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water without cost; the water that truly satisfies.” Jesus said, “anyone that drinks of me will have springs of living water welling up from His soul.” Jesus wasn’t saying, “I’m this very profound teacher, bro, and if everybody just gets along, we’ll all be cool.” Is that our impression of Him? Not even close! He was God’s Son, sent from God Himself, sent to shake up the world, sent to welcome seeking hearts. He came to dies, He came to save us from our own self-centeredness, hurtfulness and pride, He came to draw us back to God’s own heart, to rise from death to life, to live among any who would give themselves to Him, to show us how to treat each other. And perhaps finding beyond our desperation the joy that comes as we reach out to touch the cheek of a certain sleeping Child.

Feel free to share this as much as you like...just give glory to God and credit Ken Hougey as writer. Thanks!