An Untraditional Christmas

My husband and sons have been sending around humorous texts about decorating for Christmas. Let’s just say that I enjoyed transforming our home into a very festive place more than they did. The fact they had to haul all of those boxes out of the attic and help wasn’t their favorite day of the season. I tried to make it more fun with hot chocolate and cookies, but their “bah-humbug” spirits remained. The Sunday sermon after Christmas decorating usually included a few jokes about an aching back, etc.

But not this year. Let’s just say decorating our home this year for Christmas wasn’t a Hallmark Christmas movie event.

2019: An Untraditional Season

It’s taken me several years to arrive at this spot, but I think I’ve made it! The kids are both married with homes of their own to decorate. We had everyone for Thanksgiving, so our Christmas will be pretty quiet. As a result, Jim and I decided to enjoy an untraditional Christmas season. We bought a small tree from Hobby Lobby and set it on a little table. We pulled a few more things out of the attic and called it done. It took about an hour to have our home ready for the season. We are in an “every other Christmas” mode and it’s kind of fun! Untraditional will become a new tradition for my home – but Jim, be warned – only every other year.

An Un-Hallmark Christmas

If you have read my blog for a while you know that I am a fan of the Hallmark channel, especially during the Christmas season. Apparently, a LOT of people are. It is the number one watched channel in December. The network has a website store where you can purchase Christmas socks that say, “Shhh, I’m watching a Hallmark Christmas movie” or a coffee mug that says, “Tis the season to watch Hallmark Christmas movies.” There are T-Shirts, pajamas, warm throws, games and an apron. I would like to own all of them, except maybe the apron. (It wouldn’t get much use.)

I’m seriously considering purchasing the kitchen towel, just so that my “guys” might finally understand my love of Christmas. The tea towel reads:  Things I Learned from Hallmark Christmas Movies: 1) Stop and smell the pine trees. 2) Family traditions are everything. 3) Christmas spirit is contagious. 4) Sprinkles are mandatory. 5) Good things come to those who believe.

The Most Untraditional Christmas

The success of the Hallmark Christmas movies should serve as a signal to all of us who understand the genuine “reason for the season.”  People want the traditions and values that are truly the product of a season that is about Christ. Interestingly, most don’t even realize that the traditional Christmas values were inspired from the biblical story of Christmas in Luke, chapter two.

Everything we value about the Christmas holiday is depicted in the original story. God made Mary and Joseph a family and made certain that they could raise and protect their newborn Son. The family faithfully loved each other and God. The skies were ablaze with light when the angels appeared. The shepherds knew that the baby who had been born was special, and God had sent his angels so they would be included in the story. Everyone has a place of importance at Christmas. The innkeeper found the family a spot at his inn, even if the best he had to offer was simply his stable. The Wise Men later brought gifts because they wanted to honor the King.

It is safe to say that the most untraditional Christmas was the first one. There will never be a replica of that day. But the values seen in the biblical story are the values the Christmas season is supposed to produce in our hearts and lives.

Jesus is the Only Tradition to Insist Upon

I think family traditions are wonderful but adaptable. Kids grow up, marry, and need to establish their own family traditions. To insist Christmas has to be the same each year is to insist it has to be done “your way.”

Traditions have great value, but only if they are shared traditions. Families combine at Christmas and occasionally collide. Keep some traditions and make space to enjoy a few new moments as well.

The only tradition that I will insist be kept is that Jesus be the King of the holiday. Christmas is about him. I won’t open the holiday to other faith traditions because Christmas is about Christ. I won’t sing songs to other gods because I know there is just one God. I won’t allow people to suggest I celebrate a holiday when I know Christmas is about a holy day.

The only tradition I will insist on for Christmas is that the celebration be focused on Christ.

My Favorite Decoration

I thought I was done decorating, but I wasn’t. The living room didn’t have its typical large tree, covered with memories of our thirty-nine years of marriage and family. I’m already looking forward to seeing those souvenir ornaments again next year. I did, however, need to get back in the attic and look for that special box where I keep a favorite decoration. 

Several years ago, my friends surprised me with a beautiful Lion and Lamb sculpture that I keep on my living room coffee table at Christmas. At the base it reads, “Peace on Earth.” I remember staring at it in a store window while on a trip with those friends. I loved it from the first moment I saw it because it seemed like God was saying, “This is the why of the holiday season.”

That Lion and Lamb represent the deepest meaning of Christmas to me. The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming Messiah’s birth and what it would mean to the world when he wrote, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). Christmas is about the peace Christ was born to provide.

Peace on Earth

Jesus is the only tradition Christians should insist on. This year, peace is the theme of our untraditional Christmas. My little tree is just perfect. My quiet holiday plans are, too. Christmas is about Jesus and the peace he brought to earth.

Every other tradition we own will one day cease.  One year, the world will celebrate a final Christmas. Jesus is going to return.  Revelation 5:13 is about the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. That verse says:

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

The worship of Christ is a holiday tradition that will never end. May it be the focus of our holiday season this year and every other. Amen?  And all God’s people say, Amen.

Changing our changes

One of my favorite things about God is that he is unchanging. 

James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). 

When I read my Bible, I am reading the same message my ancestors would have read, albeit in a different version. I’m a fan of consistency, loyalty, and “standing firm” in almost every aspect of life. 

(That sounds a lot better than stubborn and immovable, doesn’t it?)

It was time to make a change

I have to admit, I tend to remain loyal to people, routines, and companies for a long time. 

Jim and I got married in 1980 and put our deposit down with a phone company. That company was purchased by another, but we stayed the course. The only time I didn’t pay a monthly bill to this company was for the years we lived in Georgia. As soon as we moved back to Texas, I signed us up again. When cell phones became the norm, I used that same company. 

But, I’m about to retire a cellular family plan that was established before the flip phone! In fact, my first cell phone required an antenna that had to be pulled up. 

Why am I making this change after such a long time? 

Because I’m just not satisfied with that company any longer. I’ve been patient and loyal, and I’ve stood firm, but recently I’ve been asking myself: Why? 

So, I decided that sometimes a person just has to change the changes. 

Should we blame change on Adam and Eve

One of the most consistent themes of Scripture is change. In fact, I think change was one of the most profound results of getting kicked out of the Garden. 

(Note: the following is somewhat “speculative.”)  

I just left a long, interesting conversation with my theologian husband. 

When the conversation concluded, he said, “I’ve never had that thought before. And I’ve never heard of anyone else who said it either.” 

So, take the following for what it is: my random thinking that maybe we should think about. 

The question I posed to my husband was: “Was change a result of Adam and Eve’s sin?” 

I kind of thought it was. Why? 

  • Adam and Eve walked around without clothing. Therefore, seasons were probably not part of the Garden.
  • Adam and Eve were able to eat of all the fruit, except for that one. So, planting, pruning, and watering weren’t necessary.
  • The animals were created and named and lived peacefully around them.
  • The only “rule” God had to explain was about the forbidden fruit.
  • The first apparent change was after Adam had sinned and he and Eve felt shame. 
  • The Bible records a LOT of changes that took place after that.

Jim and I talked about this idea for a while, and he had to agree. 

We can’t prove it theologically because the Bible doesn’t say—but it certainly seems so. 

Should we change what we think about changes?

If change occurred as a result of the fall, should we think about change a bit differently? 

Most of us try to limit change, yet think about all the benefits. 

My phone fits in my purse or pocket now and has far more capabilities than my old computer and phone combined. Changing to a newer phone is an easy choice to make because it makes life easier. 

Some changes are more difficult. 

I recently visited the dermatologist. Apparently, I can make some great changes, but one of the greatest changes would be to my bank account! I’ve decided not to change those changes—at least not yet! 

None of those changes would need changing if Adam and Eve had listened to God. 

Maybe we need to accept change like we accept aging. It’s inevitable, but we try to change those changes sometimes.

Will there be change in heaven?

I don’t know if heaven will change, but I don’t think so. 

I know that one day everyone who will ever exist in heaven will be there. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  

Is change one of the “former things” that will pass away when Christ returns? 

Heaven will be a place where we can blissfully count on everything and everyone to be absolute perfection.

Looking forward to the biggest and best change of our lives

Paul wrote about the most important change that will ever occur in this world: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:51–54). 

In the meantime, I will change the changes I can change and work to accept the changes I can’t change. But I will do it all with the hope that one day we will all be “changed,” and all the changes will be forever changed by the One who never changes. 

So, how did these thoughts about change, change your thoughts today?