Holiday Hope

During the holiday season, there is always at least once when one becomes somewhat reflective and “harks back” to times past and gone.  Sometimes that look back involves family gatherings.  Sometimes it is a trip to a special place.  Sometimes, it is something having to do with the celebration of Christmas itself…participation in a Christmas church drama, the appearance of Santa, or some other memory.

And for some, memories are not always pleasant.  This time of the year tends to cause more stress and strain on families and relationships than other times.  Financial strains are also apparent.  Abuse and suicides seem to increase during this time.  Memories of the holidays are many and varied.

I was laying in bed this morning, not wanting to get up, and my mind wandered a bit to Christmases of times gone in my hometown.  On the radio (I still use an old-fashioned clock radio to wake), they were talking about the fact that years ago, people didn’t decorate much outside with lights.  Oh, there would be a few here and there, but not many.

However, once in a while, someone in a community would go “all-out” and decorate pretty much everything in sight.  And people would flock to see the spectacle.

I recalled one such place for me in my young years.  A man by the name of Johnny Hamilton and his wife (I believe her name was Mary), were an older couple.  They lived in an older home on a relatively large lot in the north part of town.  Their lot was surrounded by an evergreen hedge which Johnny kept trimmed.  And every Christmas, this hedge would be covered, it seemed, with the colored lights of the season.

I can’t remember if he had other things on his place decorated or not.  I only remember the evergreen hedge all lit up.  And we’d pile into the ’54 Ford or the ’56 Thunderbird Wagon and drive by just to see Johnny’s handiwork along with a lot of other folks in the community.

I don’t know how long Johnny decorated his hedge.  If I am correct, he passed away in the early 1970’s.  He may have done it until his passing, or he may not have been able to do it for several years prior.

Whatever the case, the memory of that is burned into my mind, and I’ve thought of that time often in the intervening years.  I don’t know if Johnny knew the influence he would have on my recollections of Christmas and the recollections of others as well.  I don’t know if he decorated his hedge primarily for himself or if he did it for his family or the community at large.  But it was a large undertaking in those days…strings of lights were no more than about 12 to a string, and most of them were the kind that if one goes out, they all go dark.  I don’t know how many hours he spent putting them out and gathering them back in, but it had to be considerable.

So, whatever it is that you do now for the holidays, know that in the mind of someone, that something is being etched into the long-term memory banks, and will be recalled perhaps many years after you’re long gone from the earth.  Just as I recall my first taste of eggnog, which happened during the holiday season, so I recall the lights of Johnny Hamilton and a hundred other memories of long ago.

I don’t long for those days to return, but I do long for the hope of someone fondly recalling something we did over the holidays that comes back year after year in a pleasant memory and a time of peace and joy.

Merry Christmas!

The Calendar Turns

And the calendar turns to yet another Christmas season, along with the New Year holiday and a general slowing down of the normal routine of life…school, work, and the ordinary…in favor of glitter, gifts, travel, baking & cooking, and family get-togethers.  On our part of the globe, the season is also marked by short days, long nights, and in many cases cold and dreary weather.  We are more susceptible to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and the effects of being cooped up inside all the time.  Sometimes, that manifests as a kind of depression; sometimes as violence; sometimes it’s masked and no one knows.

I say those things to say this:  If you’re like Charlie Brown in “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and just don’t feel like celebrating…just don’t feel in the spirit of Christmas, you’re not alone.  Amidst all of the glitter and lights and happiness of the season (and the joy of the season is genuine, no doubt) comes a darker side that is common with mankind and the world.

The world was in the same condition some 2,000 years ago when a baby was born in the city of Bethlehem in what was then Judea.  Whether the actual birth happened at night, like so many believe, or in the daytime is really immaterial.  Whether there were three wise men or more (or less) is immaterial.  Exactly what kind of celestial phenomenon the star was that guided them to the child is immaterial.  And whether 10 baby boys or 100 baby boys were killed by Herod in an attempt to do away with the new king is immaterial.

What is absolutely material is that at that instant, on that day, something changed.  Something changed for the world.  Something changed for mankind.  More than one writer of the Bible talks about that change.  John says it well when he says that, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Paul expands on that, and says that even though the Christ “existed in the form of God, he emptied himself…and being made in the likeness of men.”  The angel who visited the shepherds said, “Unto you is born this day in the Cityof David a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Isaiah said, hundreds of years prior to the actual event, “For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given.  And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”  And even Adam and Eve caught a glimpse of the wondrous event when God, driving them out of the garden, told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

So now, even though there is still a kind of combo platter of emotions, behaviors, and thoughts that come during the holiday season, there is also hope, peace, and true joy for the one who calls upon the name of that baby boy born so long ago, who lived, died, and now lives again.  We can indeed have hope.  We can indeed live with joy.  We can indeed be at peace.  Because he has done for us what we could not do for ourselves…reconcile us to the God of the universe, and cause our adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High God.  Merry Christmas everyone!