Why should we consider Christmas before Halloween?

The kids are planning their costumes for Halloween. The news is already discussing the shortage of turkeys and the cost of this year’s Thanksgiving meal. The airlines are scheduling holiday travel and the big box stores are already lining their aisles with Christmas trees. We have reached that time of year when one holiday merges right into the next. 

It is the “most wonderful time of the year” in many ways. 

That said, there are many people who have arrived in this country who will want to celebrate Christmas but might not have a home or the means to do that this year. The entire population of Ukraine is likely to have the most difficult Christmas season of their lives. 

Every Christmas season has its own unique stories, but every Christmas season is truly about the original Christmas story. That is why we should consider Christmas now, before Halloween.

These holidays are something most people have in common

Embedded in this long holiday season will be a political election that promises controversy. Some of the issues making our news may also gather around our Thanksgiving tables and Christmas celebrations.  

It will be easy to know the things we disagree about, but what do we have in common? 

I was outside of a Trader Joe’s supermarket this week and saw a sign that stated their company values. It said things like integrity, kindness, courtesy, quality, friendly, helpful, and top quality. It struck me when I looked at the sign how much most people have in common. Who doesn’t appreciate high standards and great character? 

We all have a lot of differences these days, and it was good to realize that we also have a whole lot in common. 

The holiday season is a great time to remember that most of us share similar goals in life, even if we believe there are different paths to reaching those goals. It might help if we would focus more on what we have in common than what we consider to be our differences. 

“Happy” Halloween?

I like the pumpkins but not the skeletons. I enjoy the kids in cute costumes but not the adults who scare the kids with what they chose to wear. I probably wouldn’t mind Halloween if it were celebrated as it was intended, the eve of All Saints’ Day. The saints are worth celebrating, not Satan. 

A verse for Halloween: “O you who love the Lᴏʀᴅ, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 97:10). A happy Halloween is remembering we live to honor the saints and celebrating the fact Christians are delivered from all things evil or wicked. 

A day for thanksgiving

I have always loved Thanksgiving. I love the food, the football, and the idea that we should take a day to be truly thankful for the lives we are blessed to live. I am thankful for my family, my friends, and mostly for the faith we share. God deserves our praise and our expressions of gratitude. It is good for our souls to be thankful. 

My favorite verse for Thanksgiving is: “Oh give thanks to the Lᴏʀᴅ, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (1 Chronicles 16:34). 

God is good and deserves our deepest gratitude. 

A Christmas about Christ

Every year I am determined to celebrate Christmas with greater simplicity. I sometimes wish for the holidays I see pictured in movies. Busy schedules, various cities, and diverse families often don’t blend during the holidays. In many ways, Christmas seems more about scheduling than celebrating. 

But one thing holds firm. Christmas is the story of Christ. 

Christmas is about “Joy to the World” that arrived on one “O Holy Night.” 

Christmas is about the “Angels from the Realms of Glory” who announced that “Love Came Down at Christmas.” 

Christmas is about how “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” and the time “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” 

Mostly, Christmas is about “The First Noel” and the “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” that “The Little Drummer Boy” worshiped.  

Every Christmas is celebrated with important traditions that just need a few adjustments each year. Even in changing seasons, the theme of Christmas will always be the same: “O Come All Ye Faithful” to praise, sing, and pray, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” 

Why should we consider Christmas before Halloween?

This year’s Advent Book is a second printing of The Songs Tell the Story, first published for Christmas 2019. I wrote it as a reminder that the great hymns of Christmas tell us the true and timeless story of our Christmas season.  

We sold out early in 2019, and many people expressed a desire to purchase more copies than we had to share. This year, we are taking preorders so that, hopefully, everyone who wants a copy can receive one. As always, many of our donors will be sent a copy as our gift, but if you would like additional copies, you can preorder those now. 

Why should we consider Christmas before Halloween? 

Because, while all the holidays are special, Christmas and Easter are truly “holy-days” for Christians. 

Our ministry wants to help you keep your Christmas holiday focused on the pure story of our Savior’s birth. The Songs Tell the Story is something you and your family can share this Christmas season, and we hope it will bless your holiday. 

The Apostle John said that Jesus, “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Jesus is the “light of the world,” and sharing the celebration of his birth is something most people have in common. I hope this year’s Advent book, The Songs Tell the Story, will help you spend time with Christ each day of your holiday season. 

Let the holiday season begin! And may the holiday be a holy-day. 

Preorder The Songs Tell the Story here. 

 

P. S. While supplies last, you may request both the adult and children’s editions of The Songs Tell the Story for your donation of $50 or more.

The thing that spooks me

I’m not a huge fan of Halloween.

In fact, I’m usually glad when October passes and we begin to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas—my favorite holidays. 

There is one thing that really does spook me about Halloween: the fact that it seems to roll around a lot faster these days. 

I’d always heard . . .

People who have seen their fiftieth birthday and beyond are probably agreeing with the last statement I made, while those in their thirties and forties might not. I’ve always thought it is so odd that when people reach a less-scheduled, slower time of life it seems like time flies on a Concorde jet. (And that illustration is probably only for the people old enough to know what the Concorde jet was.) 

It seems like the passage of time should slow down when we slow down, not the other way around. A friend told me something that I won’t forget. She and I both love to travel and see new things. She said she had always heard: 

The decade of the sixties means “go-go.”
The decade of the seventies means “slow go.”
And, the decade of the eighties means “no go” or “rarely goes.” 

Traveling is going to be high on my list of priorities! (Yes, that is a hint to my age!) I just think it’s important to use our “fourth quarter” to win the game. 

When I sat at my dad’s funeral, I remember thanking the Lord because I had few regrets. It is an important standard for my earthly life and my spiritual life. 

Good advice should be followed

Wisdom is hearing good advice and taking it! 

As you read these words, I’m on a plane, returning from a wonderful time in Vermont. The leaves are just beginning to turn in the mountains and hiking the beautiful trails was an amazing experience. I have a lot of pictures that I will want to keep. 

As I hiked the trails, I couldn’t help but appreciate this good advice from Scripture too. James was the half-brother of Jesus and probably became the leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem after Peter was forced to flee. What would it be like to have grown up with Jesus as the older brother, worked with him, been upset with him in public, and then later learn that this person you had known your whole life was the long-awaited Messiah? 

I imagine James had his share of regrets over a few moments with Jesus. 

In the letter that bears his name, James gave Christians some great practical advice. He said, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13–15). 

I sometimes wonder if that was advice Jesus had given his younger brother during their growing-up years. 

Why is it we naturally look down the road making plans that often don’t come to pass? I don’t think James was suggesting we don’t have goals or dreams. Instead, James was saying that we should all be abundantly aware of the fact that walking closely with God’s Spirit doesn’t include a five-year plan. 

In fact, I’m not sure it includes a five-day plan very often! 

Our life is an ethereal mist

Halloween gets one thing right. Have you ever noticed when Hollywood wants something to be scary it usually occurs at night, with a heavy fog or mist? That’s practically biblical! 

James said our lives are just a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes. He wasn’t meaning to scare us but to teach us how much we should value every day. 

James wanted us to know that the most important use of our time was to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (4:15). I’m glad it was the Lord’s will for Jim and me to hike the mountains of Vermont and enjoy the beauty of the changing season. Nature is truly one of the most elaborate displays of the greatness of God. 

Seasons change and so do the pages of our calendars

This is a short blog post because, well, I’ve been on vacation! I’m in the “go-go” decade of my life, and I plan to follow my friend’s good advice. 

I hope I will follow James’ good advice as well, for the rest of my life. The seasons come and go. In fact, they are beginning to come and go more quickly every year! I do want to enjoy every moment of my life until the Lord chooses for the mist to become my life eternal. 

Until then, if it’s God’s will, I’m going to live, work, and travel according to whatever plans I make that God can honor and bless.  

The changing seasons are our constant reminder.

God didn’t have to create our world with changing seasons. He didn’t have to cause the leaves to turn glorious colors and then fall to the ground. The trees will be bare until, once again, the leaves bloom in the spring.  

God created this world as a reminder that we are always moving forward. Time is always passing, and our days on earth are passing.  

The key to living this life well is to take James’ advice. Make plans, do “this and that,” and allow God to interrupt and redirect our lives at any moment. He is Lord. His will is for us to accomplish everything he has planned for our earthly lives—so that he can fully bless our eternal life in heaven. 

Honestly, if my heavenly view could look like Vermont in the fall, I would be thrilled! 

Enjoy whatever God has planned for you to do this week and every week that follows. We will have a lot to look forward to because we have chosen to walk through life with him.