Holidays

Thanksgiving the holiday has passed. Our sights are now set on Christmas. It is good that we still have defining moments in our culture. There still exists the concept of sacred, although it is slowly dying off in the name of commerce. We now celebrate holidays as "family time." You might think, "You're wrong, Randy. We have always celebrated the holidays as family time."

In one sense, that is true. The holidays were a time for families to gather together. A concept that has become increasingly necessary in light of the distances that often separate families. But even as social events, the holidays were imbued with sacred meaning.

Thanksgiving was about giving thanks to God for allowing our country to take root. It was about having gratitude for freedom and liberty. Now we celebrate sale days. Christmas used to be about celebrating the birth of the Christ-child. Now kids tear into presents without ever pausing to give God thanks for the greatest gift of all--the gift of his Son.

As Christians, we need to ensure that we are filling our holidays with sacred meaning. We need to labor to ensure our traditions connect our future to our past and our celebration to our hope.

Planning for Christmas Break

'Tis the season. Soon Christmas break will be upon us. I know that many of you have a lot of holiday plans. There are countless Christmas "classics" to entertain, encourage, and enjoy. There will be family get-togethers and neighborhood parties. There will be church events to attend. But the Christmas season is a good time to slow down and reconnect with family. I hope you have a holiday plan that allows you focus on your family. A good way to do that is to turn off the t.v., shut off the gaming system and computer, put down the ipod (or other musical devices) and cell phones, and to do something together as a family. A family could sit around talking or playing a game or reading a book together.

If you have small children or grandchildren who will be spending a lot a time with you during the Christmas break, I want to recommend a book to you. Actually, I want to recommend it to everybody. Could you imagine a world where it was always winter, but Christmas never came? Such is the world discovered by young Lucy and her siblings: Peter, Susan, and Edmond in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (LWW). The story is rich with Christian themes. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series (there are seven books, LWW is 2nd in the series, but they can be read separately) to teach children the basics of the Christian faith.

So during this Christmas break, when the weather outside is frightful, gather by the delightful fire and begin reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Of course, you can still read it even if you don't have a fire to gather by and the weather is delightful. It will still be a great way to spend a few hours together.