How has your Christmas been?
- School Staff Choir
- Random caroling over the last week
- Carol of the birds, Silent night, Santa's coming to town
- Christmas decorations around the school. Everyone getting into the festive spirit.
Listening to Carols at home
- Third Day "Christmas Offerings"
- Third Day: 2 Grammy awards, 7 Dove awards, Best Band and Best Artist.
- Silent Night, O little town of Bethlehem, Angels we have heard on High.
- Christmas like a child.
- Standing out more and more.
Christmas like a child:
I want to feel Christmas, how it used to be
With all of its wonder falling on me
This season has felt so empty, oh for quite a while
I want to feel Christmas like a child
I want to see snowflakes fall to the ground
My brothers and sisters all gathered around
Singing "Away In A Manager" as we sit by the fire
I want to feel Christmas like a child
It's been so long now, I can't say
Just when I lost my way
But I'm going back to how it was
When this day meant everything
And we spent our time remembering
The baby Child born for us
It's all about Jesus, asleep in the straw
This infant, this King, this Savior for all
So I don't need bells to be ringing
'Cause I'll join with angels singing
Gloria
And I can feel Christmas like a child
I want to feel Christmas like a child...
One thing having kids has taught me is that Chrismas gets back its wonder. I can relate to the feeling of "the season feeling empty for quite a while" because there was a period between being a kid and then having kids of my own where Christmas seemed to lose it's .. christmassy wonder. In fact I think I could measure the falloff of Christmas with the falloff of presents. As a kid we'd have STACKS of presents. The tree would need to up on a table to get all the presents underneath. Christmas morning was great. We'd try to stay up on Christmas eve to see if we got to midnight, but we never made it, but one of us boys would wake up early and check the plastic stocking at the end of the bed and it would be full of little presents and chocolate. They'd wake all the rest of us up and from then on it was just presents, more presents and eating.
After church we'd have the Schulte family gathering with numbers up in the 50's. It was great, more presents, more eating. This steady wave of presents would come your way as more and more relatives arrived and doled out the shiny boxes.
At the start is seemed like everyone gave presents, but as the years went on and as we grew older, the cousins stopped giving presents, then the aunties & uncles, until it was really just mum and dad, and a few others. By this stage all 4 of us boys were teenagers and we started buying presents for each other too. I think that lent to christmas becoming more of a family thing. We kept it a family gathering though for quite a while. We'd all come back together for Christmas. It was only really after Matt and Greig were married and living up in Mackay when we started missing a family get together on Christmas istelf, but it's now become a week-long Christmas / new year thing.
Having kids though changed that a bit.
- Christmas morning
So Christmas like a child? Yeah that sounds pretty fun.
Verse 2:
I want to see snowflakes fall to the ground
My brothers and sisters all gathered around
Singing "Away In A Manager" as we sit by the fire
I want to feel Christmas like a child
- Doesn't snow here, but the sentiment feels the same.
- After singing the song through a couple of times, a thought came to me: Didn't Jesus say something like that? Come to me as a child?
Mark 10:13-16
Let the Children Come to Me
13 They were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
In many ways, our Christian journey can be like our experiences with Christmas. When you first know Jesus, really know Jesus, be born again in Jesus, the whole world changes and you get to see everything new again. But then over time, as Christmas, the fire fades. Everything starts to become comfortable again. Different, totally different, but comfortable. A gentle slide back to normality.
Where are you on the sliding scale of Christian maturity? I know I'm down the tail end. It's been a long time since I've had the wonderment of a child when reading the Bible.
By now the bridge of "Christmas like a child" rolls in and Third Day are singing:
Verse 3:
It's been so long now, I can't say
Just when I lost my way
But I'm going back to how it was
When this day meant everything
And we spent our time remembering
The baby Child born for us
By now I'm not thinking about Christmas, but my own Christian walk. The fire didn't die out, but it's not roaring like it used to.
These words seemed to ring true: "I don't know when my faith stopped burning brightly, but I know now, right now, it's not like it used to be."
I want to go back to how it was, how can I get back to how it was?
Verse 4 rolls along:
It's all about Jesus, asleep in the straw
This infant, this King, this Savior for all
By focusing in on Jesus we can get back the the heart of Christmas. Here is our present, this gift of love from God to us, parceled up in a manger.
You could say that it's all about presents. But we're not the ones giving, we're the ones receiving. God's present to us; his first born son. Today I got undies and a a stubby holder. I think God's present out-trumps that.
The great thing is he gave that same present to you, to everyone here. To the people next door. To the people in this street, this city, this nation. This world. We didn't ask for it, yet he gave. Some of us left our present unopened, yet still he gave. Some of of us threw the present away, yet still he gave. Some of us nailed our present to a tree. Yet still he gave.
Why? Why give gifts to people that would treat them that way?
We read from John to find out:
John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God sees the big picture, the end game. He knows that our time on earth here is a small part of the big picture. He wants us forever, and is prepared to give up his only Son for that opportunity. Wow, that's love. Bigtime love.
How do we respond to a present that big?
Verse 5:
So I don't need bells to be ringing
'Cause I'll join with angels singing
Gloria
And I can feel Christmas like a child
Closing Song:
Angels we have heard on high
Verse for Present:
This is a special gift that you can never see.
The reason it's so special is it's just for you from me.
Whenever you are lonely, or even feeling blue.
You only have to hold this gift and know I think of you.
You never can unwrap it, please leave the ribbon tied.
Just hold the box close to your heart, It's filled with love inside.
