a little perspective

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."ť
Psalm 119:105

On holidays

posted Tuesday, July 17, 2007 :: 4:01 PM

Previous posts on holidays:
Holidays, Christmas trees, and the star
I protest Christmas in August!
Happy Yom Kippur
Non commerical Christmas (2006)
Christmas, or Yule, part two, part three, and part four
The forgotten church holiday

The holidays we celebrate, and the holidays we do not celebrate ... well, I do not celebrate Christmas the way I did as a child, and I have to say, our family is divided over this issue. I do not put up a Christmas tree or decorate the house with evergreens. Sometimes my husband puts up a Christmas tree, although probably not this year, as we are planning to visit my husband's parents this year at Christmas. I do decorate the house with light -- candles, lots and lots of candles everywhere -- and this year I am planning on celebrating Hanukkah; I realized that Jesus and His disciples celebrated it also:

"At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon." John 10:22-23

The Feast of Dedication is Hanukkah, the celebration of the rededication of the Temple after it was defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the celebration of the miracle of the oil for the lights of the menorah. We are the temple of the living God, and oil and light are representative of the seal of the Holy Spirit which is within us and the light of the world that Jesus called us to be. A very appropriate and worthy thing to celebrate!

About gift- giving: I do not purchase gifts to give to anyone on Christmas morning. I am appalled at how commercial and materialistic and covetous Christmas has degenerated into anyway, with merchants angling for your money by hawking Christmas even before Labor Day now, and children compiling long lists of expensive presents that they expect their parents to go into debt for. It is my little way of saying, "This greediness has nothing to do with the birth of our Savior!"

So my rule of thumb is: if someone is expecting a gift from me, and if not receiving one would communicate rejection of them or uncaring for them on my part, then this year I am giving a card on Hanukkah with a note included with an expression of my appreciation of them, and the name of a ministry or missionary to which we gave a gift in their honor.

For my children and grandchildren, I give something of myself they can unwrap, usually something I have made myself, or an heirloom which they love, or something my husband and I have salvaged and restored. Whatever it is, there are two rules for the gift: it cannot be purchased new from a retailer, and it has to have something of ourselves in it which has value for the receiver; it is usually a sacrificial gift of some kind.

For those who wish us Merry Christmas, I believe it would be rude to not respond. I mean, the person is greeting you with good will and kind intentions. I respond with something like, "God bless you!" and leave it at that. I try to remember not to compel anyone to have the same convictions I do about it, for conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit; my work is to be a witness; and to always be reminding myself that how I respond to someone at this season communicates love and acceptance to them or contempt and rejection, so always respond in such a way that communicates love and acceptance.

To be continued ...

***
Update: continued in On birthdays

category: real life
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Untitled Comment

posted Tuesday, July 17, 2007 :: 7:07 PM :: by Honeybee

Thank you! Thank you! for responding! I look forward to hearing more.

I really like your ideas and especially that they are Biblically sound.

I've followed a tradition handed down from my mother of purchasing a new ornament each year to "represent" the year for each family member--Ie: golf ball orn for the new golfer, etc. I also have inherited all my mother's since her passing. This has been the biggest emotional strain on me. I know it sounds ludicrous, but I keep wanting to find a way to continue this tradition without the tree, etc. Pure emotion. It even sounds dumb writing it! :)

Oh, the other doozy is that my bday is jan 6--as in we always celebrated the epiphany on my birthday; the traditional wisemen arrival. Now I hear it's more "pagan" (date wise) than dec 25!?

Ok--what else? Nativities? I've now had mine out all year.

The husband wants me to ask you if you celebrate birthdays since the only 2 in the Bible were when John the Baptist was beheaded on Herod's bday, and Pharoah hung the baker on his birthday. This question comes from the "remember my death" and that Jesus never said remember His birth.

That's all for now! heehehee Thanks again!
Melissa

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<i>Untitled Comment</i>

posted Wednesday, July 18, 2007 :: 3:05 AM :: by KayinPA

I was raised in a home where we didnt do Santa Clause, but my mother did decorate with the traditional colors. She would tell us that red was for the blood of Christ, white was for the washing of our sins and green was for eternal life. We didnt have a tree, my dad had read a scripture in Jeremiah somewhere (cant recall what it was), so setting up the nativity was the big deal. We did do the traditional stockings (which I always wondered about as an adult)

Christmas is something that we have been rethinking also. Last year I cleared out most of my Christmas decorations and decided to decorate in Blue in White, w/ candles. I wanted to focus to be on Christ. Setting up the nativity was something my children look forward to also (we sometimes had a tree because my husband grew up with them, but we agreed not to have one last year). We didnt do stockings with our children this year either. Instead, I hid "baby Jesus" for them to find and left clues all around the house and a small gift (pencils or matchbox car) for each child. They LOVED it....and the focus was on Jesus, I had them ask at each hint "Where is He that is born King of the Jews, just like the wise men seeking him (although I know the wise men didnt show up until later). We also gave each child 3 gifts, because that is how many Jesus received. I tried to make them educational like learning how to knit or something like that. OH and we had NO candy! I put a bowl of fruit and nuts out and they loved that they could each have a WHOLE apple or orange, something I usually split or we would go broke on fruit in our limited budget! Anyway we had a lot of fun with it.

I do want to incorporate more of Hannukah this year since this is the holiday that Jesus celebrated.

Edited by KayinPA on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 4:06 AM

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ornaments and nativities

posted Wednesday, July 18, 2007 :: 1:04 PM :: by christinemiller

Hi Melissa and Kay,

I have some ornaments of my mother's also, and many from my grandparents; and I also used to add an ornament every year depicting in some way the big event for our family for that year. I also don't know what to do with them yet, but a decision does not have to made on them this year, and nothing will most likely happen with them until the whole family is in agreement.

I have a beautiful nativity set which was given to me by my sister, so it has a lot of sentimental value for me as well. I was thinking of putting mine out during the Feast of Tabernacles this year, since it is my belief Jesus was born on the first day of this feast and circumcised on the eighth day ... perhaps that is another post, LOL.

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