"Christmas Time Is Here"

"Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer. Fun for all that children call their favorite time of the year. Snowflakes in the air. Carols everywhere. Olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share. Sleigh bells in the air. Beauty everywhere. Yuletide by the fireside and joyful memories there. Christmas time is here. We'll be drawing near. Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year. Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year..."

When do we stop imagining, dreaming and wondering about Christmas and the blessings this special time of year can bring? Growing up in a family raised by a single father, we didn't realize we were any different than most families. We had all the trimmings of Christmas. That is a tribute to our father, Lawrence, our older siblings, Jon and Chris, who made all the miracle of Christmas appear before their four younger siblings very eyes.

I can't imagine Christmas without the church. Being raised in the church by a former minister certainly accounts for that but even when I wasn't in the ministry I had to be in church on Christmas Eve. I found one to be part of like when I lived in Pocatello, Idaho. I found the Presbyterian Church and was there for Christmas Eve like always. When I was home from seminary in Kamiah, Idaho, my sister Chris, her son Adam and I were at 2nd Indian Presbyterian Church for the Christmas Eve program then at our own church, 1st Indian Presbyterian Church on Christmas night. And does hearing that ancient story of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ ever grow old? Never. Quit the opposite: I always hear something in that story for the first time and inevitably a tear finds its way to my eye. How could God love me that much? I shall spend my ministry trying to find the answer to that question but if I never do, that's okay too.

Candles have a special place in Christmas celebrations. They inspire us with their light, their glow and with their mere presence. A candle can help us to remember the Scripture verse that says, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." When we turn out all the lights on Christmas Eve at the Church of the Indian Fellowship to close the service and see the glow of the candles then sing "Silent Night," we are on that hillside near Bethlehem when a group of shepherds were the first human beings to be told by the Angel that the Creator had sent his son to be born not in a palace of kings, not in a lodge of a mighty Chief, not in a village of greatness but born in a place where animals were kept out of the cold and lying in a bed of hay surrounded by his own creation.

"For behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto thee; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Then suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and say; "Glory to God in the highest and peace to all people on earth."

So I end this post using the words of that theologian with a blanket, Linus: "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." Who said imagination, hope and miracles don't still happen. They do, they have and they will. Amen.