#1918 Seeing Beyond the Decorated Tree

#1918

Seeing Beyond the Decorated Tree

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."  (Isaiah 7:14)

This now totally sightless veteran, who fifty years ago did have some sight in one eye, still remembers the enthusiastic glint when a grandmother talked about her grandchildren.  This world traveler still remembers the "yearning" gleam in a communist's eyes when I talked about capitalism and freedom.  I so wish I could see young children's eyes when they look at the decorated Christmas trees, I so wish I could see my own great granddaughter's eyes when she has her first experience opening a Christmas gift. 

Christmas is thought process, not a day.  Intelligent people realize that December 25 is just a guess, Jesus was probably born in late August, this writer was in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, forty years ago, and it was so very cold.  We know the shepherds would not have sheep in the fields during that type cold weather. 

One large newspaper did a feature story about my travels at Christmas time: the various places I have visited at Christmas...such as the Antarctic, Holy Land, Greece, Spain, Italy, and many other places.  There is one truism about Christmas celebration; Christmas is only celebrated in countries which Christianity has awakened.  There is no celebration of Christmas in Muslim or Buddhist countries.  IF CHRISTIANS ONLY KNEW WHAT THEY HAVE TO CELEBRATE.  There are 300 prophecies about the first coming of Jesus in the Old Testament, every one of these prophecies-promises have been fulfilled.  Just think of how Christians should celebrate the soon second coming of Jesus.  Is today's church (the bride of Jesus), are today's Christians so self-satisfied pretending to watch for him, serve him, and above all, trust him, that Christians have forgotten the real meaning of his birth?  He came to save us from our sin; the sinless one took on himself our sins, so that we could bask in his righteousness now and eternally. 

For a long time, in my Christian maturity, I objected to unbelievers bringing their spending and spreeing, rocking and rolling, into OUR celebration of our Lord's birth.  How could an unbeliever have any concept of Christmas?  Now, I just accept the fact that most unbelievers realize that the only thing that separates them from us, a matter of their unbelief.  Just perhaps hearing the Christmas carols, over and over, may cause some seeping of the Christmas message into their soul.  It just might be that seeing all the Christmas lights, the red berries and the thorns of the holly tree might awaken in the unbeliever the thoughts of Jesus as the light of the world, the thorn crown on his head, his precious blood shed for sin. 

I was a little judgmental about a decorated Christmas tree inside the church house; I have seen Santa Claus dragged down the aisle of modern wealthy churches, just as I have witnessed the second greatest event in the history of the world, Easter, characterized by rabbits laying chocolate eggs.  It becomes a vital part of our Christian witness to explain the difference in traditions, fantasies, and rituals. 

I so remember the Christmas tree in the old country church where I was raised.  For many of the poor children who attended Sunday School at that old country church (built by my great grandparents in 1874) they would have had nothing to celebrate except just wishing and wanting from a Sears Christmas Catalog.  Some of these children had never seen an orange, I remember my own "daddy" showing them how to peel an orange.  I just do not believe our Blessed Lord frowned on my old Uncle Blunner (my grandfather's brother), always in his Santa Claus costume, beating on the front door of the church and someone letting him in, and he carrying a large bag of candy and presents for all the children.  This was the only Christmas which many of the children knew anything about.  I just do not believe our Blessed Lord was too upset when one of the old men in the church put a nicely wrapped gift on the Christmas tree for one of his friends.  When the friend opened the gift, which he was so happy to get, a rabbit jumped out and ran all over the church.  Surely God rejoiced in the laughter of the children and the smiles of the old folks. 

Jesus is at every crossroads of your life before you get there; your belief in him determines your circumstances, rather than your circumstances determining your belief.  Jesus will not be relegated to a bellhop...just called on when you need him.  Christians should not be too peeved when unbelievers infringe on our holy day.  Too many Christians are linked too closely with unbelievers in their frolicking fragility of their holiday.  The Christian, banker, businessman, doctor, lawyer enjoying a lavish cocktail party in the home of an unbeliever, one who has nothing at all to do with God and certainly not his son Jesus, should not be too aroused when the unbelievers start singing "Silent Night, Holy Night..." or even, on some other occasion, "Jesus keep me near the cross..." the line of demarcation between pretenders and the defenders has grown very narrow.  Beyond the tinsel-mistletoe-decorated trees, cakes and pies, toys and trivia, this season and every season the Christian's determination a testimony not only of a holy day but everyday as our Savior's day.