Wishing you a Charlie Brown Christmas

There are very few things on television today that I watched as a kid. I was a second-grader in 1965, the year A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted. I have probably watched the thirty-minute cartoon almost every year since.

When my boys were little, we sat together as a family, ate popcorn, and enjoyed the same cartoon Jim and I had seen when we were their age. Now, my grandchildren are about the age we were in 1965, and I hope they will all have a chance to watch it as a family this year. 

Charlie Brown’s question is still ours today 

Charlie Brown and Linus were walking together to go ice skating when Charlie confessed he was a little depressed over all that the Christmas season had become. 

Snoopy had entered his doghouse in a decorating contest. Lucy wanted real estate for Christmas. Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally asked her brother to write a letter to Santa Claus for her so she could ask for everything she wanted, and it was a LONG list.  

Charlie Brown lamented to Linus about how commercialized Christmas had become. Lucy later counseled Charlie to get involved in a Christmas play to get over his depression. That job just made things even worse. His friends remained distracted and uninterested in the play. 

Charlie decided the play needed a Christmas tree, and the only real tree left on the lot left a lot to be desired. Everyone laughed at Charlie Brown’s tree. As he walked away with his head hanging, he asked, “Does anyone know what Christmas is all about?” 

Fifty-eight years later our world is still asking that question. Fifty-eight years later, the answer is still the same. 

What is Christmas all about? 

Charlie Brown and all the other kids watched Linus take the stage and lay down his blanket. A hush fell over the room as the spotlight was aimed at Linus and he recited the answer.  

What is Christmas all about?

 

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.  And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:8–14)

The Christmas message, thanks to “Sparky” 

Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor a Christmas program. As one meeting led to another, the ad agent for Coca-Cola met with the man who had produced the Peanuts special, Lee Mendelson. Mendelson had worked with animator Bill Melendez and “Sparky,” otherwise known as Charles Schulz. The rest is history. 

They worked on possible themes and settled on the commercialization of Christmas. They were trying to develop an ending for the cartoon when Schulz recommended the reading from the book of Luke. In a wonderful article written by Jean Schulz, Charles’ wife, she provided the reason why God’s word made it into a Christmas cartoon. 

She wrote, “It was also in the early 1960s that Sparky was teaching adult Sunday school at the Sebastopol Methodist Church, so the suggestion for Linus to read the quotation of the Christmas Story from St. Luke was a natural one for Sparky. When Bill said that that wasn’t done in a cartoon, Sparky answered him by simply saying (and he quoted it frequently later), “If we don’t, who will.” 

In 1965 the cartoon was scheduled to air. Coca-Cola was disappointed in their investment. CBS reportedly hated it and predicted it would be a flop. Fifteen million people watched it that first year. Bonanza would be the only show with a higher audience.  

Fifty-eight years later, the “flop” is now being seen by its third generation. Every Christmas those words from the book of Luke are heard by millions of people. Sparky’s Christmas witness continues to this day. 

“If we don’t, who will?” 

Aren’t we grateful for “Sparky” Schulz? Aren’t we glad his wife gave us the inside story to the wonderful Christmas cartoon? 

I think if Charles Schulz could make a cartoon about Christmas today, he would still end it the same way, for the same reason.  

This Christmas I want to remember his motivation for all that I do. I want to make sure others hear about the true message of Christmas. Will you join me? 

Because “if we don’t, who will?” 

Luke 2:14 

Linus quoted from the King James Version of the Bible saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” I’d like to close this post with Luke 2:14 from the ESV. That version says, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

The difference in the translations speaks a message to each of us. The ESV is clear. God’s favor, God’s peace, will be among those with “whom he is pleased.” Let’s follow Sparky’s witness this year and speak God’s word to people who need to hear it. A lot of people need to remember what Christmas is all about.  

If we won’t tell them, who will? 

May God find favor with us this Christmas season and give us his peace as we share his glory. 

Amen?

How Do We Receive and Perceive God’s Promises?

Sometimes it seems like Scripture makes promises we can’t count on. 

I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years with disappointed Christians. I’ve actually been a disappointed Christian at times. (It’s easy to think that when you are a full-time “paid” Christian that there should be a few added promise-perks. There aren’t.) 

But, most of the time, our disappointment can be overcome with a better understanding of those promises.

Bible promises that aren’t 

One example: Proverbs aren’t promises; they are statements of general wisdom. 

A good example of that is Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

That Proverb can’t be a promise because it would mean that your child didn’t have free will choices. What Solomon was really saying was, “Raise your child now with a biblical knowledge of right and wrong, and chances are good that he or she will make biblical choices as an adult too.” The general wisdom: it’s wise to raise kids with godly values, morals, and behaviors if you want them to be godly adults. 

Another example: psalms are usually words of praise for what God is able to do or has done in the past rather than what God has promised to do every time. 

A new look at a familiar promise 

I wanted to correct another “promise” that a lot of people think is a personal truth for their lives. 

I was reading my son’s First15 devotional last Saturday and had a few new thoughts about a familiar verse. I often quote Jeremiah 29:11, but Craig wisely used verse 11 through 14 for his devotional. I was reminded that verse 11, on its own, doesn’t really tell the whole truth and might set us up to misunderstand the promise. 

Jeremiah preached, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (29:11). This is a great thought about God’s intentions for his people. But, all of us know that disappointment and evil can happen in our lives. Several of my readers are dealing with financial loss resulting from a devastating tornado that came through Dallas. How, then, are Jeremiah’s words a promise to them? 

What did Jeremiah mean when he preached that message? Can we think of Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise for our lives and the lives of other Christians? 

Yes and no. Understanding the promise in verse 11 requires a little more information. 

What was the original promise? 

Jeremiah preached this message to the Jewish people who had already been captured and enslaved by the Babylonian empire. They or their parents had been marched from Jerusalem to Babylon. It would have taken about two weeks for them to get there, and it is doubtful that they were provided much food or water along the way. Many of those people died. 

Verse 11 wouldn’t have been a promise for them. 

By the time Jeremiah wrote chapter 29, it is likely that he was preaching, almost entirely, to the children of the people who had been captured. God had already told the Israelites that they would be in exile for seventy years. The average life span was about thirty years during this time and probably less for people who were slaves. 

In other words, Jeremiah’s words wouldn’t have seemed like much of a promise to the people he preached them to. But they were. 

The rest of the passage provides the truth of the promise. 

What does the passage tell you about the promise? 

Jeremiah 29:10–14 says, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.’” 

What did God promise? 

  1. The Jewish people would be captives for seventy years. For most of the people, the promise was hope for their children and grandchildren, not themselves.
  2. God always had a plan and has a plan. God knew the nation would be taken captive, and he knew he would restore the nation.
  3. God would bring the Jewish people back to their land, restore their fortunes, and gather them back. The promise was their return to Israel, but it would never be entirely the same place or the same prosperity God had originally provided them. It would be Israel, but a different Israel.
  4. The actual promise was a restored relationship with God. “Then you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” God’s promise for welfare and hope was the promised blessing of a restored relationship with himself.

And, the earthly blessings promised were almost entirely for their descendants, the Israelites who hadn’t even been born yet. 

What does 29:11 mean to Christians today? 

After this blog post, how many of your Christian plaques, pictures, dish towels, and coffee mugs will look a little less promising than they did before? 

Don’t worry though. His word is always true and always relevant. 

Jeremiah 29:11 doesn’t promise us that we will be rich and free from evil. God would never make that promise to people who live on planet earth, surrounded by people who have free wills and the freedom to use them. 

Someone can steal your riches, and people are capable of evil. The prophet did promise that God will always have a plan to restore our relationship with him and provide us with his blessings. We misunderstand his promise and often feel disappointed when we define what those blessings should be. 

There is more to say, but I will say it in next week’s blog post. For now, stand on the promises of God’s word, knowing that the promise can’t be understood except in its context—and, most of the time, won’t fit on a coffee mug! 

Then again, if you could get the whole truth in a few words, those of us who blog about and teach the Bible might be out of a job. 

One of my favorite promises is found in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.’” 

One day, Christians will go to heaven and realize that our best promises were unimaginable to us on earth. 

In other words, our greatest blessings are yet to come. 

And that is God’s promise.

The Big Picture

A NOTE FROM JANET: Before I begin this post, I want to thank each of you who donated through this website to help me provide the Jesus: Got Questions? gospel to children.

Your gifts will enable the Pocket Testament League to give more than fifteen thousand copies to children, free of charge. You have blessed a lot of kids you will never know this side of heaven but will one day know in heaven.

I’m grateful for your compassionate help with this important, life-changing project. The gospels will be sent out shortly to all who have ordered. Pray that the Lord will bless our efforts and use those gospels to help children understand and receive salvation in Christ.

You helped make this Easter special for a lot of kids. We will keep the donation button on the janetdenison.org website dedicated to this project through the rest of this week.

And, again, thank you for wanting to help.


Is it odd to say I enjoyed two funerals?

This past week, I attended two funerals.

It seems strange to say this, but I enjoyed both of those services. Heaven gained two godly women last week. They each left a legacy of faith, love, and grace to their family and friends. I left both services saddened by the losses their families will feel and reminded of the potential every life can make in our world. I start this week encouraged to live with the priorities those women shared.

Those two women were incredibly popular with the people they knew. Proverbs 31 is about a godly woman, and Proverbs 31 passages were quoted by their grandkids during both services. I hope my grandkids will feel that way about me one day. And I wish I had counted the number of times words like grace, love, integrity, and godliness were used for each of them. Funerals are good reminders of how we want to be remembered.

Both of these women would probably roll their eyes and be uncomfortable with the words people said at their funerals. Let’s face it: memorials don’t usually talk about our bad days and character flaws. We all have some. But, when our earthly lives are over, people will probably remember our strengths more than our weaknesses.

Thankfully, that’s what people usually want to remember.

We live our legacy

I hope you all saw the movie Unplanned this past weekend.

You probably won’t hear this on the news, but the film made more than $7 million on its opening weekend. A lot of people saw this film and I’m glad. It will be almost impossible for people to view abortion in the same way.

Abby Johnson changed Planned Parenthood forever. This movie will probably impact more lives than she will ever know this side of heaven. Abby Johnson had no idea that God would use her life like he did. She just knew the right thing to do—and did it.

Her funeral sermon will include the story the movie portrays. Interestingly, Abby Johnson would wish it wouldn’t.

Is our legacy about fame or favor?

All of us have “movies” made about our lives.

Yours will probably not be measured by box office sales, but it will be measured. Remember to evaluate your success and significance like God does.

He redeemed Abby Johnson’s choices for a greater good, but she would be the first to admit she would rather have made different choices from the beginning. She would trade her moments of fame for a legacy of favor. She shared her story of redemption with the world, but she would rather have chosen a different story.

The key is in the before and after

All of us would like to think we are going to leave a godly legacy, but we tend to evaluate that legacy like the world does. We tend to measure our moments, but God measures our lives. It’s probably a better goal to want a good funeral sermon than a hit movie.

I imagine you have quoted Proverbs 3:5–6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” But do you know what comes before and after those favorite verses? It’s interesting!

Proverbs 3:3–4 says, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”

I think sometimes we shoot for the “straight path” but aim for it only in the moment. God’s word teaches us to be “steadfast” in our love and faithfulness. We are to wear those qualities on the inside and the outside and then we find favor with God and man.

Maybe we are aiming too low. We tend to strive for faithful moments, but God has told us to lead a faithful life.

The key to a faithful life is found in Proverbs 3:7: “Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.”

How do we learn to trust God? To not lean on our own understanding? To submit to God and walk straight paths?

We need to realize that there is a higher wisdom than our own. We need to adore and revere our Holy God. And, when we see evil, we can choose to get rid of it rather than tolerate or just complain about it.

Proverbs 3:5–6 can’t be fully understood or obeyed without those verses that come before and after.

Our legacy is about the big picture

Your legacy will be a summary of all your days.

So, I suggest one simple change in our thinking. Instead of thinking about, praying about, and evaluating our “moments,” maybe we should look at the larger picture more often.

Let’s not put so much energy and focus into writing an interesting screenplay. Instead, think about writing your funeral sermon.

That’s the big picture that matters most.