From Seasonal Stress to Sacred Stillness
written by P. Endel Lee (Chaplain, RDML-retired, US Navy), CTD Board President
As indicators of the Christmas season flood the horizon, the rising concerns about Christmas begin to fill our hearts and minds. Decorations in yards and homes and places where we shop are constant reminders of how much there is to do to get ready for this special celebration. Menu planning with special foods and lists of gifts are created and checked twice. Added to these concerns are reflections on whether we have been naughty or nice.
Such concerns can consume and even overwhelm us at times, tempting us to become Scrooge-like. Or we allow ourselves to be covered by a blanket of depression because once again we cannot manage to manufacture all the features of a perfect Christmas. Perpetually, it seems that something is missing . . . maybe it’s the perfect dish just like grandma used to make that reminds you of home, or the perfect gift that eludes you, or the presence of a special person who now is a memory or like in the story/song of “A White Christmas,“ you miss the snow. The never-ending reeling of such Christmas concerns can feel very real.
However, the truth is that a real Christmas has none of these features as the central concern. The central concern of a real Christmas is acknowledging the extravagant gift God gave to the world by sending His only begotten son, Jesus, to live, die and be resurrected, so that people could have everlasting life. The embrace of this reality consumes all the other concerns of this season and allows one to experience the love, joy and peace inaugurated at the first Christmas and intended for every year that followed, including this year.
As I concern myself with focusing on the real meaning of Christmas again this year while attempting to avoid becoming caught up in the financial flow and social swirl of all the other seasonal concerns, my mind reaches for Linus van Pelt’s answer to Charlie Brown’s now infamous question:
“Isn’t there anyone who knows
what Christmas is all about?”
Thank God, Linus knew the answer and quoted it directly from Luke 2:8 -14, so Charlie Brown and his friends could settle into a real sense of Christmas with all the privileges and simple obligations that accompany it.
I hope you and your family can reproduce the same discovery this year concerning what Christmas really means —promoted by the likes of Harriet Beecher Stowe (in Christmas; or the Good Fairy), Charles Dickens (in A Christmas Carol), and Charles M. Schulz (in A Charlie Brown Christmas, which has run continuously since 1965 [60 years])— so that when prompted, you won’t find yourself hunting miserably for the right response, should God decide to ask: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
