Christmas Carols

A few years ago on Christmas Eve we closed our store and headed to Boise to spend the evening with our son and his family.  If any of you have worked retail during the Christmas season, you know what a relief it is to lock the door after the hectic two months leading up to Christmas.  Hedda was sleeping in the passenger seat.  The sun was setting behind the snow covered Owyhee mountains.  Danskin and the foothills turned a deep red and the cotton clouds were turning shades of pink.

I was singing Christmas carols along with the radio when I heard my Father’s voice.  I have had this experience before.  Usually it happened when I was yelling at my son:

 “Steve, how many times have I told you to put my tools back where you found them!”

This time was different.  I was flooded with warm memories of family Christmases back in Minnesota.  I remembered the time when I was seven years old and came home from the hospital just days before Christmas.  I remembered when we kids went with Mom to buy the Christmas tree.  The man at the tree lot helped us tie it on top of our station wagon and we should have had a hint of the trouble to come when the tree was as long as the car.  We managed to get the tree in the house but it was too tall to stand up even with the high ceiling in the living room.  We had to get a neighbor to bring a bigger saw to cut it down to size and construct a tree stand that would fit the thick trunk.  The top we cut off gave us boys a tree of our own up in our bedroom.  I laughed out loud when I thought of my teenage sister watching my Dad hammering in the homemade candles on our enclosed porch.  He missed with the hammer and punched a hole through the porch window.  He turned red shouted “Confound it!” and threw the hammer down on the floor.  The hammer then bounced up and went right through the picture window into the living room.  My sister was literally biting her tongue to keep from laughing.

The anticipation of the grand kids opening their presents, the beautiful sunset, the relaxed look on my sleeping wife’s face, the familiar carols, the memories, all together gave me my “Hallmark Moment”.

Mary and Joseph also must have had their “Hallmark Moments” as they thought back to that first Christmas.  The excitement of the journey to Bethlehem, being stuck out in the barn when her labor started, the angels singing, the shepherds and wise men visiting, the adventure of heading home again.  These must have been some tremendous memories as they got back to their normal lives.  Joseph went back to his carpentry work.  Mary started to her life as a new mom.  That first Christmas must have faded in the mundane “back to normal life” in Nazareth.

So when the time came for them to bring Jesus to Jerusalem and the ritual of purification, the words of Simeon and Anna must have shocked them back into reality. 

This was not just a son, this was The Messiah.

I can’t imagine the sense responsibility they must have felt.

Now it’s our turn.

Well it is great to feel the “Christmas Spirit” and have those “Hallmark moments”, it is time for us to get to work and spread the news.

While the Christmas carols that we sing tend to bring back those cozy memories, we need to take the time and listen to the words we sing.  Most of the familiar songs use other than modern English.  We hardly ever use “Hark” in our daily conversations and when I was a young boy and heard “Hark the herald angels sing”, I wondered how my uncle Harold got his name in a Christmas song.

Now I know that the words mean - pay attention to the news the angels are spreading - but I still think of my uncle Harold!

So how do we at spread the news?

Joy to the world!

Be happy.  Make people wonder what’s going on.  Maybe they will ask you how you seem so satisfied with your life when everything in life is so tough.  Be ready to tell your story.

Away in the Manger

It’s hard to believe the King of the world was born in a stable and laid in a manger.  We must learn that we can humble ourselves also.  We do not need the biggest house or car or TV.  We do not need the fanciest clothes.  We must learn not to look down on the homeless and out of luck.  If Jesus can come from such humble beginnings we should look for His presence in our humble surroundings. 

Silent Night.

Take time to meditate the wonder of Christ being born a person.  Think about Jesus falling down and skinning his knee.  When times are tough remember that he went through everything that we do and so much more.  Pray and thank him for what is good in our life and ask him for strength when times are tough.

I have one more Christmas carol story.  A young girl asked her dad about church and God.  He told her he did not believe in God.  The girl was exposed to church through her friends and grandparents.  The four year old decided that she Believed!  They were visiting the grandparents and went to the Christmas Eve service.  Her Dad was singing along with the familiar carols when she told him,  “You better not sing because God will hear you and you will end up in heaven!”