..."Yule tide carols being sung by a choir, and folks, dressed up like eskimos...everybody knows a turkey and some misseltoe...will help to keep the spirits bright..."
...tiny tots, with their eyes all aglow, will find it hard to sleep - tonight.
They know that Santa's on his way, he's got lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh, and every mother's child is gonna spy, to see if reindeer, really know, how to fly...
"...and so I offer you this simple phrase to all from one to 92, although it's been said, many times, many ways - Merry Christmas, to you..."
Winter is the time of sleep for nature. Christmas is the hope of being awakened to a new life. The early church fathers were wise indeed, in incorporating certain of pagan ritualism or celebration of hope for a new beginning, into the Christian church.
I know the yule log, the tannanbaum, egg nog, missletoe, holly, evergreen baughs, Father Winter, white candles and so on are all "pagan" in origin. However, they do not make me think of pagan holidays. Indeed they help me focus on the truth of Christmas for Christians...the birth of the savior of man.
For a moment in the dead of winter, there is warmth and light and a promise of new life ahead, and not just seasonal life, but eternal life.
And because the church elders were wise enough to understand that these rituals did not hurt their main objective (which was to convert "pagans" to their way of thinking), they embraced them and incorporated them into the whole of Christmas (hence literally avoiding mass bloodshed across the whole of the land). Europeans converted to Christianity relatively with narry a shot, nor an arrow or axe raised against anyone.
Indeed, they took "Christmas" (Christ's Mass), and made it their own! of their own volition! Who cares the outside 'trappings', the main theme is left intact! The savior of man is born! He's HERE!
Why not celebrate the arrival of the savior of man in the coldness of winter, with candles, and fires and gatherings and decorations, and dancing and singing and merry making, and gifts to eachother, and oh yes, prayers of thanks giving to the God who made it all happen?
Even David danced and sang and LEAPED before the Lord, in jubilation and thanks giving.
I think King David would be right at home in our current celebritory version of honor to the arrival of the savior of the world...
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
ok, back to our original program...
v/r
Joshua
