Sleigh Ride

Just made it safely back home with four hours to spare this snowy Christmas Eve -- emphasis on just.

For a few, terrible seconds along the way, this Christmas Eve might have ended in spectacularly, unspectacular fashion. It's never good to crest a hill and find two trucks pulled to the side of the road with a car perpendicular to said road in between. And it's even less good to tap the brakes and feel the vehicle you're driving start to wiggle, then try it again only to feel a waggle -- even at 30 miles per hour.

So I aimed for the opening at the double yellow lines as traffic passed in the opposite lane, knowing there were three possible outcomes and two of them we will not mention out loud. But with my wife in the passenger seat lofting quick, audible prayers, our sleigh somehow slid through trouble and safely back onto the darkness of a road illuminated by only the driving snowflakes.

Call it one final reminder to be thankful for Christ, thankful for salvation and thankful for Christmas miracles.

Long expected

For me, one of the blessings, and curses, of the so-called "liberal arts" education was the Art and Music Appreciation class.

Those that know me would never dare say that art or music are one of my strong points. And those that don't know me would take only five minutes to figure it out.

But as one of the requisites for that course, I had to learn to play the piano. And I use that term, play, loosely here, because 15 years later, I could no more play a piano than I could tuna fish (little joke, there ... very little).

Anyhow, it became my quest to figure out a way to plunk out the song, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," in a way that one might almost consider to be music. And though remembering the how has become problematic, I shall never forget the whens or wheres. Dark rooms, usually after dark, were where I practiced interminably to perform that song well enough to pass the class.

And the words of Charles Wesley's Christmas-oriented hymn have never departed either. We sang it at church this past Sunday, and I was reminded once again how perfect for Christmas this song is. Here are the lyrics in case you have not had them drummed into your brain in the pew of a church, or, as in my case, the pew of a piano:


Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

How apt that we feel the way we do about Christmas. Nearly from the moment one Christmas ends, we anticipate the moment that another will begin.

We know it's coming, but it takes so long to arrive. We even try to fool ourselves with Christmas in July, but it's not the same. It doesn't have the same spirit, the same consolation.

But when it finally does arrive, we feel that hope, desire and joy well up in us all at once. We want to share it, shout it, live it forever ... and we shall. But not because of anything we have felt or done or said. Only by His merit, His grace, His freedom ... Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.

The Last Christmas

Typically, talk around this time of year centers around the arrival of Jesus heralding the first Christmas. But I just wanted to share this moving song by Sixpence None the Richer that takes a different tact -- the last christmas without Jesus.

And listen for my favorite lyrics of all late in the song:

I feel your heart beating inside my own skin
And I think of Mary in Bethlehem
When darkness was shattered, the dawn of god's grace
And the journey began to the first easter day

On this last christmas the last christmas
The last christmas the very last christmas
The last christmas the last christmas
The last christmas without you

Christmas Amusings

So less than a week before Christmas, and I find myself thinking of the last few such holidays.

A couple of years ago that I woke up on Christmas morning, but instead of unwrapping gifts, I unwrapped my intestines. That is, I got down on my knees and bowed before the porcelain god and puked, yakked or whatever your favorite term may be right in the toilet. (Don't worry, this isn't a lesson in not worshipping false gods, because the porcelain god is not worth the effort, trust me.)

In some ways I was like Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the ghosts of Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner past. And when I was through, I was changed because if any man ever wanted to keep his Christmas ham well, it was me.

Well, by the time the next Christmas rolled around, I no longer gave that dreadful experience much thought. But my daughter did. She mentioned it on Christmas Eve, concerned that Daddy not be sick this Christmas. I assured her I would not be (then thought carefully before I ate anything else, lest I be made a liar) and the holiday proceeded as it should have.

But the point was well-made. For all the hoopla and the hype that surrounds Christmas, it's easy to take the entire celebration for granted. As a matter of fact, we may sometimes make ourselves sick on all the sweets that accompany the season both literally and figuratively -- i.e.: shopping, Santa, pageants and presents.

But what we really need to do is appreciate the gift of it simply being Christmas -- the chance to celebrate Jesus' birthday, to celebrate his gift to us and to reciprocate by giving Him the gift of our lives. No tree necessary, no lights required, just us and God.

Because there's nothing greater than his presence being in us -- even if our last meal is not!

The Social Network

In this age of new technology and information overload, it sometimes seems like the Gospel story is stuck in a time capsule. ... If you want your dose of old-time religion, go dig it up from under that tree out back.

But that's not how Jesus shared the most important message in the Universe, and it shouldn't be how we do things either. Jesus showed up where the people were from that first miracle at the wedding in Cana to the woman at the well to the triumphal entry. And he presented his message with a twist, so much so that the church elders of the day (i.e. - Pharisees and Sadducees) wanted to choke the life out of him ... literally. He taught the Scriptures, but in a personal way. He presented salvation, often with a parable or allegory.

Well, in their own way, that's what the folks in charge of The Natwivity are doing. They are using the social network of Twitter to re-tell the Christmas Story. Not the one with the Red Ryder BB gun and the kid with his tongue stuck to the flag pole, but the original Christmas Story of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men, and don't forget ol' Herod.

Even if you're not a Twitterer, just visit this link to ready what is being done. The most recent tweets are at the top, so scroll all the way down the page if you want to start at the beginning.

The story is being told from the viewpoint of the various characters, tweet by tweet. It's creative, it's fresh and it's a tale 2,000 years old that doesn't sound like it. Who says evangelism has to be boring?

A Song for Christmas

One of my guilty pleasures in the month of December is hauling out those Christmas CDs, or downloads, and enjoying some cheesy, schmaltzy and moving tunes.

The song for which I posted the video below -- Hero, by Abandon -- doesn't quite fit the classic Christmas song mode. Well, as you will see, it seems a bit more Easter. But when I listen, I hear Christmas.

I hear the Christmas spirit in Jesus' every move. We needed a hero, a Savior, and he's the only one that fit the bill. Giving of oneself is Christmas in a nutshell.