Christmas Messages in the Night

Early this morning as I was semi-awake, a phrase from a Christmas hymn was playing over and over in my mind:

“And He leads His children on to the place where He is gone.”

 

Those words, coupled with the words from the poem “The Gate of the Year,” generated an image in my mind of my being led through a great darkness by the Savior as he held my hand:

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
   ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
  And he replied,
   ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
   That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way!’"

 

I think the encouraging message to me was that I can travel through much darkness or trials in my life with peace and even joy, as long as I stay focused on Him who is leading me, and the reality and safety of His strong hand holding my hand.

               

 "The night is dark and I am far from home, lead Thou me on."

 

Not the Benedict Arnold of Christmas

Did you happen to see the recent headlines about Pope Benedict that falsely implied that he said the traditional Christmas story was not true?

The major media (CNN, The New York Daily News, etc.) published headlines like this:

“Killjoy pope crushes Christmas nativity traditions”

"Pope sets out to debunk Christmas myths"

Of course, I was shocked and dismayed that the Pope had apparently lost his mind and had caved in to atheism.

But there was something about such shocking news that didn’t quite ring true for me. So I did a bit of investigating (on the internet) to find out what the truth really was.

The brief story in the local Deseret News by Matthew Brown, “Vatican comes to the defense of pope’s book on Christmas,”  was almost too brief. It merely noted the current media flap, but left out the important point that the Pope had been misquoted and misunderstood! The five people who sent in comments to the Deseret News obviously thought that the Pope was probably guilty as accused: the Benedict Arnold of Christmas.

However, on the website, firstthings.com, Kevin M. Clarke, set the record straight, showing that the media reports were sloppy journalism at the very least. His parting words:

As should be painfully evident, there is a big difference between what the media says that the Pope says and what the Pope himself actually says. Each time the waves settle from their slipshod coverage, the media should find that it has displaced a bit more of the public trust, trust that they will deliver the truth about Vatican news. They forfeited my trust a while ago. If anyone were to ask me, “How should I read news about the Vatican from the secular press?” I would say, “It can be useful for information, but must be read with a fundamental principle of uniformly applied suspicion and doubt. In other words, read it in the same way in which they would have us read the Bible.”

In reality, we probably should regard any and all of the media’s news stories with “Uniformly applied suspicion and doubt,” not just stories about religion. But especially about religion!

Sad, but true.

Even Matthew Brown of the Deseret News did not work very hard to set the record straight on Pope Benedict. He missed an opportunity to defend someone misrepresented by the mainstream media. Shame on him.

A Target Christmas catalog came in the mail this week. It was artfully done: colorful, and full of happy smiling children. It’s goal was to convince you that you could have a joyful Christmas only if you bought all this stuff guaranteed to produce joyful children (stuff available at Target, of course). Mostly that meant very expensive stuff. Mostly that meant electronic stuff. Electronic stuff that had, in every case, one solitary child interacting with an image on a TV screen.

I fear that too many parents, especially parents with little money, will despair (at least subliminally) of having happy children this Christmas because they can’t possibly afford to buy any of this stuff. They may even know that this catalog is a lie—that nothing in it can produce real happiness. Interacting with something electronic is an empty, ultimately unsatisfying endeavor. Loving interactions with other people, genuinely connecting with other people, serving others, seeking to make others happy—this produces real happiness.

I remember being a parent with little or no money for Christmas gifts. I remember overhearing my children say (about dozens of items), “I want THAT for Christmas!” as they watched yet another commercial on TV or looked at yet another printed ad. (Some scriptures come to mind: “their eyes are full of greediness.”) I felt like throwing the TV in the trash just to stop the “I want”s. It was making my children covetous and materialistic. And that guaranteed that they would be miserable on Christmas morning, and that they would think themselves deprived and cheated.

I don’t know at what age a person finally realizes that most “stuff” cannot guarantee happiness. Perhaps some people live their whole lives and never come to that realization. An old song from my parent’s era proclaimed that “the best things in life are free.” It was never a favorite of mine—crummy tune, bad poetry, saccharine sentiments. But, it seems to become truer all the time.

The moon belongs to everyone.
The best things in life are free.
The stars belong to everyone.
They gleam there for you and me.

The flowers in spring,
The robins that sing,
The sunbeams that shine,
They're yours, they're mine.

And love can come to everyone.
The best things in life are free.



My biggest fear is that we are all addicted to our electronic stuff and have lost touch with stuff that is real. And wholesome. And healing. And deeply satisfying. Anyone up for a walk in (or a dive into) the autumn leaves?

Merry Christmas

Sing sweet as the flute,
Sing clear as the horn,

Sing joy of the children
Come Christmas morn!

Little Christ Jesus
Our brother is born.

Wishing you peace on earth and good will toward men.

* * *

I saw on the snow

when I tried my skis

the track of a mouse

beside some trees.

Before he tunneled

to reach his house

he wrote "Merry Christmas"

in white, in mouse.

Christmas Ponderings (by a Jew)

Me: Dara has put up her Christmas Tree; Ben brought up the Holidays and is dreaming of Christmas (or at least Thanksgiving). I guess I started it by talking about "Presents or NOT" a few Blogs ago. So, continuing in that same vein, I thought you might enjoy the following video of Ben Stein, who is Jewish, talking about Christmas.

Sorry you have to endure the 30-second advertisement before you can view the video.

[Now turn off (pause) the video's next ad, so you can read on: ]

More of Ben Stein's Ponderings on Christmas:
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

Me: It's refreshing to get a Jewish perspective on Christmas as it's celebrated in the US, isn't it?