The first Christmas

 With Christmas just around the corner I find myself captured in moments of memories of this time as a child growing up in Denmark.....

- it gets dark before 4 pm there, and to disperse of the gloom, candles are lit in windows, and on the beautiful table center pieces that are most often home made with a clump of clay decorated with pine needle branches, pine cones and main feature is a calendar candle - tall enough to be marked with the numbers 1-24 . It is lit every morning during breakfast and allowed to burn just long enough to erase the number that matches the day.
The fragrance of julegløgg and æbleskiver (picture a fluffy pancake ball and you've got it)  fill the house.
The special cookies that are baked, and with good intentions stored in tins for Christmas eve and the following days....... we never ran out, but a second batch was always made to make up for all the 'tastings' that took place before Christmas.
The funny thing about keeping potatoes warm in the bedroom under the down comforter - and the year they were forgotten until my parents went to bed......
Then, on Christmas eve (when Christmas is celebrated in Denmark), we always sang Christmas songs after dinner and before opening gifts. When the grand parents were there, we were enough to make a circle around the tree, walking around it as we sang.
I could fill a book with Christmas memories.

                    But one Christmas stands out among them all - my first Christmas!

Not the one as a one year old -
 I was 22,  but that summer I had come to believe in Jesus. That he was the son of God, sent to reconcile us to God through his death and resurrection. A new life started for me that summer.

Then came my first Christmas as a new believer and I truly believe

                                                 that what I felt and thought that year is what Christmas is about!

You see, when we sat down after dinner and started singing Christmas songs........
               I had gotten to know Jesus whom we were singing about
                                                                           - believed in Jesus, whom we were singing about.
                                     
                                   It resonated deep within me, it was real - it was truth.

The words woven together to tell the story of Jesus the savior being born, then set to beautiful music, were for the first time in my life meaningful, and I just wanted to keep singing.
I remember looking around at each family member and my heart being filled with a love for them, new and fresh.

                                                    Christmas, right there!!

Nothing else was important - the food had been good, the presents yet to be opened, surely would be nice - but those things were not IT...... 

                                                           I realized they were add-ons.


Sitting and proclaiming through songs,with a believing heart, the birth of God's son - that was the center piece and the focus of Christmas.
           What a night, what a glorious and joy-filled night that was for me. I was changed.

                                                       Christmas was about Jesus!

Have I stayed changed? Yes and no. I still believe, love Jesus and walk in his truth. But if I'm honest I have to admit it is hard to not get caught up in the 'add-ons'.
When our daughter was born, my mom crocheted an advent calendar for her; a jolly santa in the middle with the numbers 1-24 scattered randomly around him, each with a little ring under it where a present could be attached to the great joy and surprise for her every morning starting Dec. 1st.
         
                                      Is that what Christmas is about - no.
               Did we have loads of fun watching her enjoy the little gifts/treats - yes.

You must see/hear these when you are out and about:
A poster for a concert invitation says; "Come re-capture the Spirit of Christmas".
A video has this title; "This will remind you what Christmas is about."
A phrase says; "Put Christ back in Christmas."

How often have you been asked; "Are you ready for Christmas?" which is really asking whether you have bought all the gifts, wrapped them, is the tree up, the food in the house etc.

Post-Christmas statements like; "This was the best Christmas because..." followed by a list of gift items they received.

Part of the 'Christmas story' is, that there was no room for Jesus in Bethlehem - I say not much has changed in all the years since then!  So many places/homes/hearts have neither time nor room for Jesus at any given day, Christmas being no different.

But what about us? who believe in him, know him, follow him, love him........

How do we guard ourselves
                           from adding so many add-ons to Christmas
                                                                                 that there is no room for Jesus?
                     
                                       
                                       
 My heart longs to make Jesus and his self-sacrifice, that began when he left heaven, the center piece.

I wish you all a Christmas filled anew with the wonder of God and his gift to us; Jesus!

"... who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be held on to, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Phil. 2:6-8

-b

Joy in the morning

Slowly dawn arrives with its golden light

in a path from the east, ending the night

darkness cannot remain, it must give way  - recede

to the amazing beauty against which, all artists compete

I hear the call, sense His smile and feel the draw

to stop, take the time to see -and be in awe

from the quiet rings out the song of a bird

my heart joins in, knowing we both are heard.

I'm alive in the middle of this wonder

a mere shadow of what lays yonder

when I stop, when I look,- I hear God say to me;

"Come taste and see..."

Psalm 34:8 "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!"

 

 

 

-b