Christmas

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7 KJV

Weddings and Christmas have a lot in common. There is all this anticipation and excitement over a 2-3 hour event that takes weeks and weeks of preparation. All the while, there is a picture perfect image that drives us with an idealized vision of how it should happen. Both are multi-faceted events where one has to worry and plan for guests, location, decoration, gifts, ritual, and, of course, food. Ordinary hot dogs and beans will not do. There has to be coordinated menu with some unique features that give the aura of individual creativity. Where most men would be happy with a pork chop and gravy, women fuss over what kind of sprinkly spices to drop in the egg nog or the punch. Ordinary china will not suffice either. We have a complete different set just for Christmas. Better Homes and Gardens would be pleased.

In all the planning, we also create in our minds the ideal words, looks, and excited thanksgiving that we would like to see come forth from all our loving family. We dream of that land where never is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day; or so we would wish for at least one evening. The children will all be grateful and, oh, so helpful. Husbands will be sensitive, thoughtful, and read the minds of their wives. The in-laws will not be rude and will walk into your house with pure and overflowing admiration for all you have done. Even the dog will cooperate and not spill his water dish or worse (much worse).

The tension builds because we do not live in a perfect world. Dogs eat ornaments, children pout or get pukingly sick, husbands totally misread telepathic communication, in-laws say the darndest things, and mom discovers she is not Wonder Woman. Weddings are likewise remembered for the things that go wrong instead of all the things that go right. Candles go out, cakes tip over, attendants faint, and wardrobes fail all to the chagrin of mothers from the beginning of time.

Living with imperfection is a daily challenge for any family. We would like to have everything in its proper place and our children all tidy models of circumspection and genteel deportment. Alas, it doesn’t always happen. Over all, I am very impressed with your children arriving every day, freshly scrubbed, bright eyed, and for the most part, on time. I brag on you regularly. On the other hand, I know you are quite human simply by the things that fall out of your cars along with your children. There are shoes and rubber snakes, McDonald’s cups and crayons, beanie babies and old socks, and even groceries. I mistakenly opened the wrong door a few weeks ago and out poured the contents of two or three grocery bags. You would have enjoyed the sight of your administrator chasing cans of beans rolling down the driveway. I never know what I will encounter as you drive up. There are friendly dogs, occasionally a yipping dog, and once I found a complete plastic leg in the back floorboard. Then there are the days of sick kids with feverish looks wrapped in blankets. Today, one drove up holding a cup having just lost her breakfast.

It may be a wonderful life, but it is not easy, clean, convenient, ordered, and certainly not perfect. It never was. When we compare our discomforts and disappointments with those of Mary and Joseph, our complaints must be seen as so trivial. I take great comfort in the Christmas story, a tale totally immersed in imperfections and riddled with pain and conflict as well as glory. God works in the detritus and anguish of everyday life His wonders to perform. Struggle defines the Christmas story. He not only can use it to amplify His message, He came to share this messy existence with us and to share our discomfort and pain. May we not let our less-than-perfect cloud or obscure the glory that is Christmas.

Thanksgiving

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

In a recent issue of Christianity Today, Cornelius Plantinga Jr. made a chilling observation by commenting, “It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular.”[1] We have all just witnessed plenty of that, I am sure, with last week’s national Thanksgiving holiday celebrated by Christians and atheists alike. Any tally of the mention of “God” verses the mention of “turkey” in our daily media would have shown a great imbalance in favor of the bird. Plantinga pointed out, however, that being thankful “in general” is very odd. “It’s a little like being married in general.”

Before dismissing for the holidays last week, my Spanish teaching wife brought out in her class that Thanksgiving is a truly unique American holiday. No other country has anything quite like it. With that said, she ventured out onto thin ice and asked her class who the first celebrants were thankful to. There was much awkward silence followed by timid expressions of pilgrims being thankful to the Indians for bringing food. Yes. That was it. The pilgrims were thankful to the Indians for bringing food. This was the sage consensus of high school sophomores and juniors from a rural area of Knox County in the heart of the Bible Belt. It was enough to make a grown teacher cry. She went on to remind them of the Jamestown and Roanoke colonies, two failed experiments with which they were at least familiar. Can anyone say, “survival?” The survivors of Plymouth Rock had a lot more on their minds than a mere harvest feast and Indian game. They were thankful to an almighty God for their basic existence after their first devastating winter of this new land was behind them.

One of the first declarations regarding the day of Thanksgiving comes from the State of New Hampshire in 1782 and reads, “The United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States:[...] Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”[2]

No ambiguity there. Clearly, such a clear-cut and stark statement of religious faith today would send deep shivers across our sophisticated sensibilities that have demonstrated here-to-fore impossible capacities of tolerance for the bizarre and profane but not, indeed, for “the practice of true and undefiled religion.” We have the zealous promoters of a “secular” and “inclusive” society to thank for that. They have waged a carefully articulated war against the mixing of the sacred and the secular seeking libertine license for themselves while denying that morality has anything to do with “the foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.” Not content with their victory in judicial and political precedents, they have moved to expunge even the memory of our religious heritage as a nation. How do you do that? History is subverted to tell us that Pilgrims were thankful to Indians for bringing food. Evidently they have done their job well.

The telling of our nation’s history is critical to our sense of identity and the continuance of our values. It is the front line of our culture wars. Don’t assume anything. Question everything. Beware of strangers bearing texts published after 1970. Don’t drink the cultural water. We are in a fight, and the enemy takes no prisoners.


[1]Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., “Assurances of the Heart” Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 13.
[2]Thanksgiving Proclamation State of New-Hampshire. In Committee of Safety, Exeter, November 1, 1782