During the Christmas season, I think that most of us do some reflecting on Christmas past. Here are three stories from my Christmas past. I watched a Christmas special on TV, some years ago, that featured two singers.
During the Christmas season, I think that most of us do some reflecting on Christmas past. Here are three stories from my Christmas past.
I watched a Christmas special on TV, some years ago, that featured two singers. One man sang about Christmas trees, snow, Santa and a turkey dinner. He had a nice voice and he seemed very careful about smiling and pronouncing all the words properly. As I listened to his songs, they seemed empty.
The next singer was an African American, with a deep rich voice. He sang, "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King." He marched, singing and dancing all around the room. For the whole song, he repeated the same words. But this man was full of life and joy and faith. His words were about Jesus, born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. But he was looking toward the future and the return of this Jesus as the King of Kings.
It seems to me that this singer had a true grasp of the meaning of Christmas. So many people go through Christmas and all the attention is on fun, food, family and friends. But Christmas is about Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. When we don't give attention to Christ, we are leaving out the most important part of Christmas.
For two summers, while at University, I worked in Jasper National Park. I worked on the Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline. I spent some of my time helping out at a Christian Coffee House called the Bedford Inn. The leader decided that the group should have a Christmas celebration during the summer. They prepared a full turkey dinner, with all the trimmings, and celebrated Christmas with the coffee house workers. But I wasn't a full-fledged coffee house worker, and I didn't attend the mid-week Bible study, as I was playing in a fastball league on that day.
Because I didn't attend the Bible Study, I was told that I wasn't invited to attend the Christmas dinner. I didn't think that this was overly fair and that night, I cooked chicken and had my dinner alone. It didn't feel very nice to be excluded. However, later that evening, I did join the group for some other activities. At Christmas time, even when it occurs in the summer, and this is quite unusual, people are sensitive about being left out. I know this from personal experience.
Quite a few years ago, my wife and I were in Switzerland for Christmas. We were studying French, in France, preparing to work in Congo, and we decided to visit Switzerland. Just before Christmas there were two Christian events that we attended. They were vastly different.
One was a candlelight Christmas Eve service. It was in a beautiful church with magnificent stain glass windows, beautiful architecture, and the people were dressed so nicely. The pipe organ and the choir sounded great. But no one spoke to us. They greeted their family and friends but not one word for us visitors. I thought, "This is not good".
We also attended another meeting. I saw a poster in the street about a meeting, "Alone For Christmas". The meeting was in an old church basement. My wife was bit reluctant to come along, but I assured her, "They will welcome us."
And they did. I don't remember what church affiliation, and it doesn't matter. Their evening was to welcome the ones who were alone. They welcomed some street people, and us, with songs, tea, cake and a gift of a candle.
In the beautiful church with the beautiful people, we were ignored, but in the old church basement, with the street people, we were welcomed with heartfelt smiles and genuine caring. This was a real Christmas spirit.
The heart and soul of Christmas is Christ. Jesus the baby is also Savior and Lord. I hope that in your celebration of Christmas there will be a central place for Jesus. Many don't regularly attend church services, but during this season, why not attend a service in one of our churches, and bow your head and heart before Jesus the Lord who is coming again, and it may be soon?
And during this Christmas season, why don't we seek to share God's peace and love with others who need a touch of God's love? Some are feeling left out and alone and perhaps the best gift that you might give this season is your gift of a smile and a welcome.
