The Reason for The Season

I love Christmas... the whole season. The anticipation, the lights, the story, the wonder, time with family, festivities. Christmas has a way of making us feel cozy right at the darkest time of the year. The Light shines in the darkness and we huddle around it.

Of course, for Christians, the main focus of the holiday is the birth of the Baby, none other than the Savior of the world. What a wonder to think that the Lord of everything should stoop so low to be born among us... out of His love for us. Amazing.

But that's just the beginning. Sure, Jesus is the reason for the season. But in a larger sense, Easter is the reason for the season. Without the work of Easter, Christmas would be a fascinating oddity.

I sometimes wonder why Christmas has grown to be the biggest holiday among us instead of Easter. I guess it's a bit more difficult to market sin and suffering, death and resurrection. The cross that spanned the distance between heaven and earth. That all doesn't play so well to the culture at large.

So, fine then, let Christmas get all the hype and hoopla, decorations and movies, parties and baked goods by the dozens. But in the midst of the merriment, keep your eye on the horizon. There is a cross on a hillside, a stone rolled away, a temple veil torn in two. Easter changed everything. Easter is the reason for the season.

Considering the Poultry

I bought "cage free" eggs yesterday. I've never done that before, but there they were, and I started thinking that it was probably a lot nicer to be a chicken wandering around than cooped up in a cage all the time. So I gave the "cage free" farmer my money.

Maybe I'm just feeling  more poultry-sensitive since I watched the documentary "My Life as a Turkey." Seriously. Here's the link so you can watch it for yourself if you are so inclined... http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/full-episode/7378/

It's really a fascinating look at how this man, Joe Hutto, raises a group of wild turkeys from eggs to adulthood, becoming "one of them," as it were. There's more to a turkey than meets the eye, and Hutto gained amazing insights into their lives and the natural world around them.

Thus, at least for now, we eat "cage free" eggs at our house.

A Re-Birthday

December 13, many years ago. I was a senior in high school on a Young Life retreat to a camp in North Carolina called Windy Gap. It was a fun and crazy time, a mix of lots of laughs and heart-to-hearts.

It was a Saturday evening and there was a speaker (I have no idea who it was now). He talked about me (how did he know?). About how I couldn't be good enough in my own strength. How I fell short over and over even by my own standards, not to mention a holy God's. This imperfection, whether deliberate or accidental, he labeled "sin" and I was stuck with it.

And he talked about Jesus - as I'd heard many times before. About how He was a real man with real temptations who really loved me and died for me. About how only He could take care of my sin problem, and give me new life, eternal life. Believe and trust, he said. And I did.

It was a cold and windy winter night when I walked up the mountainside. I searched the stars and embraced the wind. And I placed my heart in His hands. I really prayed, for maybe the first time. And I was changed.

Maybe you couldn't tell it by looking at me... same hair, same clothes, same teenage insecurities. But a profound change had taken place within. A new peace and an unshakeable joy were sprouting up and taking root.

And I have never been the same.

Wonder in the Midst of Us

Presents, parties, treats, and general festivities... 'tis the season to run around like a crazy person trying to get it all done while clinging to the hope of reflecting on the meaning of Christmas... Standing in awe. Kneeling at the manger.

The trick of course, in the midst of all the busyness, is to find ways to let the peace of that first Holy Night settle me. Sometimes at night, after the kids have gone to bed, I like to sit at the foot of the Christmas tree with only its lights shining. As I gaze up, the colorful lights sparkle in my eyes and I find once more the childlike wonder of Christmas.

It is the wonder of a new star in the heavens. Of shepherds visited by angels. Of God in the flesh. It is the wonder of hope - of new life - for a dead world.

It is a story so improbable that many doubt. So pivotal that it divides history. So lavish in the lengths that Love would go to that it defies logic.

Take some time to remember. Stand in awe. And carry the wonder of Christmas in the midst of the season's busyness.