December Dear Friends

Dear Friends,

I love Christmas carols! Whether it’s “Joy to the world” or “What child is this” or “Silent Night,” 

I love to hear them and sing them during this time of year. They remind us of the wonder of the season...well, at least some of them do.

Other carols remind us of the want, even the greed of Christmas:

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”

“Johnny wants a pair of skates, Susie wants a doll”

“Santa baby, I want a yacht and really that's not a lot...so hurry down the chimney tonight.”

What do you want for Christmas?  It’s a question that we ask our loved ones.  And our loved ones ask us. Children seem to have an easy time making a list and filling it with all kinds of things they want.  Some adults, too, keep a running list. But, for some of us, we struggle to answer the question. Whether we take care of our basic needs and shop for what we need when we need it, or whether we have enough stuff we are trying to get rid of, or maybe we just don’t want to ask others for things...whatever the reason, still we struggle to make a list of things we want for Christmas.

I came across this poem by J. Barrie Shepherd, someone who knows about this struggle.

“Nothing for Christmas”

That’s what I’m asking for this year.

That’s how I’m responding to my spouse, siblings, kids

and grandkids too who, once again, insist upon a list of every single thing

I want for Christmas.  Don’t you see, it gets to be that,

after almost eighty of these weary feasts of dutiful generosity,

there’s nothing left to ask for?  Haven’t they noticed,

no one wears neckties any more, and even in these northern climes--

and losing/leaving things behind, as I do more and more--

I already own sufficient pairs of gloves, slippers too, to equip a small platoon,

if not a regiment?  In other words, my needs seem to have shrunk,

along with my stature, and the wants I feel belong to the non-material variety.

And so I ask nothing--no thing for Christmas:

Perhaps an hour, instead, of solitude beside the manger, a nestled child

upon my lap, an opened book, the radiant warmth of burning logs,

one day, at least, of surcease from these varied, mobile aches

and pains that linger on to test my well-worn frame,

the old familiar touch of tenderness that says, “I’m glad you’re here,

still here, after season upon season of all life’s trial and turmoil.”

Such are the gifts I seek, not wrapped and laid below the tree, but hidden

just beneath the passing of these late and almost holy days.

The truth of Christmas, friends, is that even if we ask for no thing, we receive some thing that all the money in the world could not buy, something that fills our hearts with love and our lives with peace, something that never wears out, but lasts eternally.  This is the gift that came that first Noel wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. This is the gift that comes from God to bless each and every one of us. The is the gift of God’s love named Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” This is the gift that is for this day and all of our days and even forevermore.  

For nothing, this really is something!

Christmas Blessings,

Pastor Donna