Pastor: David Morelli
Editor: Joanne Hanson
In recent years we have trimmed our house with Christmas lights when my son can come from Seattle. It is usually before Thanksgiving and before our “Hanging of the Greens” at the church. But this year with the late Thanksgiving he came the same weekend we were having our party and helped decorate the fellowship hall and put lights on the Christmas tree in the sanctuary as well as at our house. Tradition has kept me from turning on the lights until after the Thanksgiving, but this year I turned them as soon as they were up. And I wasn’t the first in my neighborhood!
Don’t ask me why I did this. Perhaps it was the fact that there are less days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would not know this except this was the reason retailers said they had to start selling Christmas ‘stuff’ right after Halloween.
But I have to admit I did not mind seeing Christmas come early. In fact, I think I could handle Christmas year round. The after Christmas let down is like going to a Blazer game, watching them win, and then leaving the Rose (Moda) Center to return home. It is like returning home after going on the beach. How often have I preached about keeping that feeling of Christmas all year long?
What does that mean anyway?
I think it means having that feeling of hope that there might someday be ‘peace on earth and good will to all”. I think it means taking time for family and time for friends. It is about buying gifts for those we love, and even those we don’t know: shelters and other charities.
I used to like to shop the day after Thanksgiving; watching the people, looking at the decorations and listening to the Christmas music in the store. But I must say, the crowds and the outright commercialism has taken some of that joy away. I prefer seeing the lights on houses and going to Christmas special in the area.
Christmas points towards hope and helps us reflect on what the world can be. We look forward to the day when we will turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
As I give into the retailer’s calendar, perhaps that is ok. There is nothing wrong with making Christmas all year round, if Christmas means looking towards the hope of the world, and living “as if” it is already here, but also the feeling of anticipation knowing it is ‘not yet’.
My family wishes everyone a blessed Christmas and a hope filled New Year.
– Pastor David
Newsletter PDF: Newsletter-12-2013-WEB