My FAVORITE of all holidays (and holy days), rich with symbolism and meaning. It is not only deeply spiritual, but full of meaning I get to publicly share during the season, my best witnessing days each year!
Stormie got in trouble with her Kindergarten teacher for telling other children there wasn't really a Santa Claus.
We're not those Christians that think "Santa" is just a mixed up way of saying "Satan." Au contraire. We just let Santa Claus be a part of the whole kit and caboodle of the celebrating, but his part was just a fun story for my kids, "'Twas the night before Christmas…". No way I was going to let some fat guy in a red suit get the credit for buying all those gifts. We figured we'd let them know right from the start and then there'd be no disappointment later or wondering what else we'd been dishonest about.
Rocky and Stormie went through a phase of thinking he was real on all their own. Their reasoning? "We saw him. He was walking down the mall." It lasted about 2 days.
But Stormie, against our counsel, I assure you, told other poor, unsuspecting children. And she got busted. She probably wishes she hadn't known the truth because to have that kind of knowledge – to be able to tell a secret so powerful it will destroy another child – that is heady power, my friends. Heady.
I'm already dreaming of Christmas…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Better find out what all my kids are telling my grandkids before Stormie gets to them.
Starbucks called to me at about 6 am this morning. I thought, “Well, perhaps today I’ll pop over there for my ‘quiet time.'” Then I remembered – I don’t really have “quiet time,” at least not in the way that that phrase is used frequently, as a way to describe a Christian’s daily devotional time spent with God in His Word and in prayer.
The ordered life.
I heard a guy saying yesterday, “I just love those 20 or 30 minutes of my quiet time with the Lord every day before anyone else gets out of bed, it is my favorite time of day.” He was suggesting that everyone should set their alarm for an earlier time and try it. It sounded right, very spiritual, like if you’ll just do this – the rest of your day might be crap, but for these moments,good times.
I remember as a young wife and mother to a house-full of kids, however, I’d go to a women’s conference and hear a perfectly coiffed and beautifully dressed and genteel woman talk about getting up earlier than everyone else to have “quiet time” with the Lord. And, after initially being inspired that I could do it, I would just cry. When you have toddlers and nursing infants, you’re not only up earlier, you’re up over and over and it isn’t “quiet.”
I believe in the quiet!
If you know anything about the year I have had, you’ll know that I am absolutely for quiet, for rest, for the Sabbath, for getting my heart and mind and body settled and for receiving the peace promised when our minds are fixed on God. If we don’t learn to withdraw sometimes like Jesus did, if we can’t turn off the TV or computer and get away from people and sit and wait and listen, if we can’t be quiet enough to know He is God, we will hit a brick wall stunning us into silence for our own good. I know this from personal experience.
It’s a riot! Just read about David’s times with God in the Psalms.
So, if I’d gone to Starbucks, I guess my time would have been quiet. I couldn’t let those intelligent people see the real thing: the reading the Bible out loud with emphasis, as if reading to a Kindergartner (it was the only way when the kids were young!) with lots of starts and stops and “hey, what did that mean?”
So yeah, there is that kind of talk.
There is laughing (yes, with just God and me in the room, He is very funny). There is often awe (“Oh God, You are above all things, You are awesome in the words’ truest sense“), and there is crying, too. Sometimes with gratefulness and sometimes out of frustration, the tears fall.
Sometimes I talk too much and forget to listen. Sometimes I don’t pay any attention and we have to go back over it again the next day. But it is interactive. It is messy. It is noisy or quiet. It is curled up on the couch or pacing the floor. It is singing really loud and dancing around or weeping silently. It is life.
What I am learning about time.
Christmas Day was just too fast and crazy for us this year. It was a delightful morning, with creative and loving gifts being shared by all, but it just whizzed by at breakneck speed.
With married kids needing to be more than one place on the day now, it came and it went and I think I got a glimpse of how God must sometimes feel. When the presents were packed up and the house was quiet, I longed for the days when they didn’t go anywhere else, they were just there with me for whatever the day would hold (exciting or not). And love and understanding grew by virtue of time and togetherness. I am starting to understand more about what God wants out of a relationship with me.
I think He just wants the time with me. He wants to be in the middle of the laughter. He wants to to hear my heart, yours, too. He wants us to actually seek Him out for a conversation, for hearing His secrets. There are conversations that only come after we have done what we are “suppose to do,” after we have dutifully read our daily Bible “assignment,” filling out our church group Bible study books and prayed our obligatory prayer.
When all the pomp and circumstance has died down, or when we have fulfilled our “daily devotional time” with Him, then what? Will we just stay and hang out anyway, just to please Him, just to be near Him? Will we hang close just in case today is the day He might reveal something more of Himself to us? Is that worth my time? I am now shouting a resounding YES! Let it be so!
The secret of the Lordis with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. Psalm 25.14 nkjv
Blessings – God’s great and gracious blessings on you today! – Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Listen for Him, stay close to Him, watch for the revelation in the unexpected moment. Get near Him so He’ll know I want Him to come near me…
We are snowed IN! See the photos, a view from the living room window and our neighbor who has been shoveling out for hours – he is our hero! Can you believe, even as we took this pic a few minutes ago, it is still snowing!? (See the ap news account here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_re_us/snowstorm )[no longer available]
I have heard varying amounts, but we know we’re well over 20 inches of snow, with the drifts in our yard being up to 4 feet high (the fences you see in the photo are 5 foot fences)! Just a few days ago, Dave was Christmas shopping in a t-shirt and shorts. That is Colorado!
Today our daughter, Stephanie, and her husband, Tristan, were to find out whether baby number three was a boy or girl, but even if they could get their front door opened, their car is buried somewhere out on Interstate 76, just east of Denver on the plains (city folk have no idea!). Tris didn’t get away from work quite early enough yesterday. Yikes!
So, if you’re reading this from Colorado, here are a few things you can do today at home –
warm up with hot cocoa and re-read A Christmas Carol
“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear”
Eat plum pudding and mince pie
Stand under the mistletoe for extended periods of time – don’t leave until you get what you went there for
snack on Christmas treats (it doesn’t show signs of stopping – I hope you bought some corn for popping!)
shake a snowglobe
walk outside for 5 minutes and actually become a snow-person
And what a great day to have some fun with the kids. Go to www.jesustreedecorations.com where you can download a free book and ornament print-outs to help teach the kids what Christmas really is all about!
May your days be merry and bright. Blessings, Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Enjoy the snow as it falls like a blanket of grace from the sky and try to remember this blessing when our backs are aching from shoveling tomorrow and when cars splash us with muddy snow-slush this weekend at WalMart.
“Fear not, I bring you tidings of great joy…For unto you is born this day…a Savior…” -Linus quoting Luke 2 in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
I love Christmas. I love it all (in spite of many years of retail management). I love the sights, the sounds, the symbols, the traditions, the aromas, the corny movies, the giving, and yes, even the receiving of gifts. Yet, yearly, I find myself having to defend my love of all things Christmas with, especially, Christians, my family-in-the-faith, who are worried that it is “too commercial,” or “isn’t really when Jesus was born anyway,” or the real biggie: “it is a time of pagan worship.”
Bah-humbug, people! Get on board the joy-train. Even in the Old Testament (see Nehemiah 8.9-12) God’s people were instructed, actually encouraged, to remember God in celebration – to eat and drink and rejoice, and not to grieve, for
“the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Then, 2000 years ago, the angels, with the actual glory of theLord shining around them, declared the GOOD NEWS, the MESSAGE everyone had been waiting for, the EVENT for which they had been longing and prophesying from way back, “good tidings of great joy…to all people…for…born this day…a Savior!”
Yaaaay – it happened! He came. And the angelic response to this in the heavenlies that night was worship to God (“Glory to God in the highest”) and declaration of blessings to mankind, who now had a Savior (“peace, goodwill toward men!“).
Why celebrate? Would offend God if we just got happy and decorated our houses because Jesus, God’s Son came?
In the book of Ezra, there was a celebration so raucous when the foundation of the temple was finished – the rejoicing was so loud the noise was heard far away. The Bible is full of dramatic worship and celebrating. But the things we do when we celebrate and decorate have much symbolic meaning at their very root. We can imprint our children and grandchildren and impact others with the truth in our celebrating. I welcome the symbols for the freedom they give me to declare Christ at this time of year more than at any other.
Christmas literally means: Christ Mass. Mass is: our worship/prayers, and ceremonies commemorating the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Everytime we say “Merry Christmas,” we are declaring Christ!
He is everywhere – in all the symbols:
Every twinkling light, every candle lit that pierces the darkness that would otherwise be there is representing “Jesus, the Light of the world.”
In the colors – the gold is like the gold the Wise Men brought as worship; green represents everlasting, abundant life; “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow,” the white snow covering the ground reminds me of the grace of God covering my sin and imperfection; the red reminds me of the blood that baby Messiah, once grown, spilled in a gruesome sacrifice for my sin – and because of all the forgiveness I have needed, red will forever and always be part of my personal celebration decoration, regardless of what fashions prevail.
If you had to choose between “getting” or “giving” this Christmas, what would you choose? Most of us have discovered the joy of giving because we remember God’s great gift to us (John 3.16). Because He gave to me, my heart overflows and I want to give…and give…and give! I just WANT to. I am no pagan! :)
Do you believe I could go on? I could because I have chosen to “joy” in Christmas and celebrate extravagantly.
I recently read the Book of Habakkuk, which one scholar describes as being “one man’s pilgrimage from doubt to worship.” The book ends with an incredible song of faith and worship in which Habakkuk makes this decision in spite of the devastating circumstances in which he finds himself:
“Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
The study notes say this Hebrew word for joy speaks of “dancing or leaping for joy,” that it indicates “spinning around with intense motion.” And note, please – it is a verb.
Yes, it would seem the world becomes increasingly Godless. No, most people have no idea what Christmas is suppose to be or the total truth of what they are celebrating, but I do know. And I willjoy because He’s here! He came! I have a Savior!
Blessings & goodwill to you and yours. Great news: your Savior came! May you have the most joyous, peaceful, life-giving, merriest Christmas ever. JOY to the world! Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: be glad, rejoice, celebrate, spin around and dance, be exceedingly glad and pass on the good news that a Savior came – for all people!
My good friend Jack Hayford (I should mention he doesn’t actually know we’re good friends) has some attending things to say about celebrating Christmas for all we’re worth. It’s a short, but good read.
In my last post I blathered about the sacred songs of Christmas (which I L O V E !). I thought of another I love singing. It isn’t sacred, but it is classic (hey, I am spirit and soul!). This one says:
“Everybody knows a turkey…”
Sure, I know a turkey. I know several. I bet you do, too. But it’s Christmas, so let’s just let them be. Let’s let them be who they are and just try to have some peace on earth and goodwill towards men (and turkeys).
AND – guess what!?? Just as I was preparing to post my last entry (“Let heavan and Nature Sing), my daughter, Stephanie, brought me a nice, hot Starbuck’s coffee. And can you believe what I read on the cup? It seems Starbucks and I are on the same page about this Christmas singing. Really the only difference between me and Starbucks is a few billion dollars, but, you know, other than that…
Here is what the cup actually said:
“Singing solo on busy streets attracts a few strange looks. Join a group and suddenly harmonies tour the neighborhood, playing to packed houses nightly.”
How can you beat coffee house wisdom?
Blessings, Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Perhaps gathering a few friends and my very talented family and singing in a group for Christmas would be fun. We could call it “Christmas caroling!” Novel, eh? ;)
One of my favorite things about the Christmas season when I was a child was sitting in a dim room with only the lights of the tree twinkling and I’d sing all the Christmas carols I knew. I had no idea at the time that I wasn’t just singing songs about the Christmas season, but I was actually being impacted with spiritual truth about God’s great gift to us.
While my own kids were growing up, even though it could be challenging to get a spare moment, I would still find an evening or two to myself to do the same. It was good to find peace during the season’s rush, in a light-quiet room, to sing truth, to just sing myself into joy.
These days you could do brain surgery from the glow of our 12-foot tree, due to the 6000 lights Dave loves to add. But stealing time to sit there and sing is a priority for my Christmas joy-quest. I love Christmas carols!
This past weekend as I waited in line for some hot chocolate and caramel corn in a tiny and extremely crowded establishment full of holiday shoppers, an older gentleman behind the counter was singing his head off. No piped music for him. He just reared back and proclaimed, “Silent night, holy night…,” and then, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come...”
How unusual, how risky and politically incorrect in these days, and yet, not one person there seemed offended or got out of the very long line to leave the store. Because it was “Christmas music,” it was OK. How cool is that? Even if they have never heard those songs before (and I bet they have), seeds were sown that afternoon into shopper’s hearts. And as year follows year and season follows season and they hear them again and again, that beautiful truth will continue to be declared as an inescapable testimony (no matter how far they may be from Christ) – those seeds remain, ready to spring up!
I love Christmas carols!
In the Old Testament God told Moses, “Now write down this song and teach it.” So Moses recorded a very lengthy song God gave to him and he taught it to the Israelite people. They sang it. Moses instructed the people to take all the words of the song to heart saying,
“These are not just idle words, these are your life.”
God knew and Moses knew that a song can impact your heart and memory like nothing else can. When you consider some of the rich, spiritual truths found in Christmas carols (and I sing them a lot, so I have!), you can see that the joyous messages contained in them are life-giving. Consider these incredible truths. Better yet- sing them:
“Son of God, love’s pure light” Jesus is the light of the world.
“Let every heart, prepare Him room”
“God is not dead, nor does He sleep” Bing Crosby does a great job of declaring this important message.
“Born that men no more may die”
“O, come let us adore Him” What an invitation to personal worship.
“God rest ye…let nothing you dismay” Because Jesus was born, we get rest, rest!“…to save us all from Satan’s power.” Sin’s terrible grip is broken, rest. “O, tidings of comfort and joy…,” rest.
And who hasn’t heard Mariah Carey on KOSI 101 belting out, “And in His Name, all oppression shall cease!” ?
Right now, for these brief few days, we don’t have to feel sheepish or guilty about what Christmas has become, but we can be the most joyous celebrants around.
I think we should all stand in shopping lines and sing Christmas carols and make people smile…or think we’re weird, but at least plant the seeds of truth in a song that will stay in their heads.
Do it. Sing a carol in a music-less place. I will if you will! Let me know how it goes!!!
Blessings, Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Go sit by the Christmas tree. Remember the gift God hung on a tree 2000 years ago while anticipating the gifts under my tree we will share in a few days. Sing with uproarious joy. Sing!
You recognize that quote, right? It is exclaimed by the saintly Tiny Tim at the end of the Charles Dickens’s classic “A Christmas Carol.
Three
We have tiny people around our house often these days, our grand-kids: Gavin 3, Hunter 2, and Guinivere 1. Our tiny ones have yet to declare “God bless us, every one,” but they are bringing great delight to our hearts in the glow of the tree this Christmas season. And oh, we are blessed by them!
Gavin knows what a cotton-headed ninny-muggins is…(do you?) Gavin, who has watched “Elf” at least 47 times in the past few weeks and made us watch along many times. The best was last night, though, when he reached over to gently hold my hand. As we watched this silly grown-up, pre-school-ish Buddy the Elf character played by Will Farrell, I apparently began to nod off. Gavin whispered, “Don’t go to sleep, Nonna, watch with me,” and then he reached over and hugged me and held my face for a moment to look into my eyes, making sure they didn’t close again. Melt…
When I suggested maybe he would also like to go to sleep, he politely whispered, “No thank you.” I stayed awake at my post, holding his hand and watching “Elf.”
Gavin’s mommy and daddy are making sure he grows in his understanding of Christmas and God’s great gift to mankind. His Jesus-awareness has increased. I found this out recently as he responded to my inquiry “Is there anyone in this car who wants french fries?’ as we hit a Wendy’s drive-through. Gavin piped up, “Yes, Jesus does!”
Hunter is picky about his Christmas confectionsIn spite of the fact that when Hunter discovered, just this past Wednesday, that he did not like chocolate-covered-cherries and flailed the partly chewed brown and red gooey ball at me in utter disgust, he is pure delight! At 2 years old, this little prince is destined to give that Tiny Tim a run for his “God-blessing-quoteable” money.
Hunter loves to lift his hands and “praise Jesus!” He sometimes seems reserved, almost contemplative (not the usual description of a boy at 2), but I suspect there may be a hell-fire and brimstone preacher coming. Even now, he powerfully gestures and declares and holds an audience spellbound. At a recent CD release party, Hunter was heard singing, with all his little might, “Fire fall down…fire fall down on us we pray...” with his arms raised into the air as high as he could get them.
Hunter’s recent “discovery” of “Toy Story” and Woody and Buzz Lightyear has made that movie new again. The other night when just he and I were hanging out, he was rummaging through our basket of Christmas movies and with great joy informed me, “Nonna, look – it’s ‘Woody 2!’ ” No, I don’t believe he was saying “it’s Woody, too…” I am certain he had heard rumors there was a sequel and knew he had found it. He gets the movie numbering system. That’s the kind of mind he has.
Cuddlebug Princess
Guinivere is the princess. She says, “Hi,” a lot and very brightly, like she really means it. “What’s that?” is her favorite question. And there is a lot of other jabbering, too, which seems to be her own secret language, but is spoken fluently by big brother Gavin and cousin Hunter. Everyone in the family thinks that Guini loves them best (although I am sure in my case, it is true) because of the way she comes up to me and raises her arms like I am the answer to all her prayers. She wraps them tightly around my neck while pressing her chubby cheek to mine. Then she’s off, spreading the love, making others think she loves them the most.
Then this happened…
Seeing Santa Claus A few days ago, their mommies and aunts and I packed up Gavin and Hunter and Guini and took them to a small room at United Power, where it was rumored that Santa Claus would be making a visit. We all acted excited about it, so the kids humored us and got all enthused about it, too. There were hordes of beleaguered parents and ornery kids being forced through the room in a tight maze created by tables. Up and down the aisles we went, like cattle being led to slaughter, all for the treasured keepsake photo of our little ones with Santa Claus.
Some families had all 2.3 children dressed in matching reindeer sweaters and were perfectly coiffed, with shoes shining and teeth straight. Others had kids with snot running down their faces and their hair standing straight up due to static electricity, with one shoe untied (is this fair – should the kid with snot have to have static in his hair, too?).
Getting all the way to Santa Claus was long and arduous. How did we keep their eyes on the prize? Because across the room you could see the man in the elf hat with a plate of cookies and a table full of candy canes. So we stayed in the line with 238 people in front of us, 867 behind. Guini waved and said “hi” quite merrily throughout, even though it was just the same group of people over and over, up and down the maze. She thought everyone was there to receive her love and friendship.
Finally, it was our turn, our moment with Santa. It was the moment I would get the perfect picture of my 3 adorable grandchildren, sitting atop the Claus’s knees, smiling, delighting him with their gift requests. I daydreamed how I would show the picture to all, the symbol of our perfect Christmas 2006. And soon, the icing on the cake: cookies and candy canes.
replace this image
photo taken a split second before Guini began pummeling Santa to within an inch of his life
And now, in this corner, weighing in at only 21.5 pounds… Well, when Tara put Hunter on Santa’s knee, he began to cry. Big, wet, grievous tears spilled from his face. Gavin got less thrilled about the whole thing the closer he got to this big furry-dressed man. But he politely smiled and stood close, but not too close to Santa’s knee, refusing to even look at the gentleman. At this point he was wondering why we had all been so excited. Guinivere, “Miss Friendly”, let out a bone-chilling scream of protest when she was placed on Santa’s lap. All the people squished in to that room, including Santa’s helpers stopped dead in their tracks. We held our breaths…
The photographer looked panicked, but was somehow able to snap the fastest kid/Santa photo known to mankind just a split second before Guini turned around and began beating Santa in his big, fat, acrylic, fuzzy, fake beard for all she was worth. They had to call security. But doggonit, we didn’t leave without our cookies and candy canes. So, you know, it was worth it. Tiny Tim has nothing on my grandbabies!
Blessings! Jeanie
NOTETO SELF: Watch with them, pray with them, squish cheeks with them…get cookies and candy canes with them by any means available! And remember – Jesus is in the car with me. And He may want fries. :)
