A Blessing to Treasure by Eunice Matchett

I love Christmas. The carols, the music, the decorations, the presents, but most of all, Christ’s love that draws us all together at this time of the year. People who are too busy all year find a moment to enjoy a coffee with a neighbor, or take a plate of cookies to the senior down the street.

I also find myself reflecting on my Christmas pasts. Kinda like Ebenezer, but I like to muse on the blessings, and this being my sixty-ninth Christmas, I’ve experienced many wonderful moments. But there is always one that floats to the top of my muse list every year.

It was a snowy Christmas eve on base at CFB Winnipeg. My husband, who was a member of the Mobile Engineers unit, had been away most of the year and just returned home. Since our children were thirteen and nine, our home exploded with excitement.  The phone rang often because I was manning the It’s a New Day counselling line.

Some time in early evening a perplexing call came. The man’s voice on the other end of my phone sounded tired and defeated. He’d just returned to Winnipeg with his family and they had no groceries. He informed my he’d already checked with all available government agencies as well as the food bank and everything was closed. After praying with him, I asked for his phone number and address.

I rejoined my family in the living room, and for a few seconds watched them sprawl over the floor in a game of twister. “Guys,” I said trying to keep the tears out of my voice. “There’s a family downtown who have nothing to eat.”

The game died, and five sets of eyes looked up at me. Our youngest son jumped to his feet. “They can have that turkey I won at the Cadet’s turkey shoot.”

One of the girls dashed upstairs. “I haven’t opened my candy bag from the church concert yet!”

Within minutes, our four children had not only gathered enough food from our pantry for a Christmas feast, they had pooled their candy, nuts, and new toys from the concerts they’d attended, to give to a family who had no hope for a blessed Christmas.

We never heard from the family again, but I was rewarded with seeing the compassion on my children’s faces as they reached into their own to share with others. As their mother, I am blessed and still shed a tear all these years later as this wee memory crawls to the front of my Christmas pasts.

A Meaningful Gift - Gloria Guest

“Wanna trade?”

Two things made me do it; the expectant look in the girls eyes and I really was a little too curious to see what was in her box. Maybe something nicer?

At only seven years old, it was my first Christmas gift exchange and I wasn’t yet well versed in the hidden messages and secret manipulations to being a part of this new girls world. I just knew that I absolutely loved the markers I had just opened. I had never seen so many amazing colors lined up like my own multi-colored rainbow!

But the older girls’ eyes staring down at me seemed to say, “If you want me to like you, trade.”

I wanted her to like me.

So without a word I relinquished my markers into her grasping hands. She thrust her package at me, in a way that told me that she was more than happy to part with it and rushed away. Quietly I re-opened the box on my lap and moved aside the crumpled tissue paper to see…an overly large pair of pink, silky underwear!

Quick, I pushed the paper back and shut the lid. I was sure my face must be as bright as the pink underwear themselves!  I sat the remainder of the evening quietly with them on my lap, mourning my markers and imagining showing my mother my ‘gift’ when I got home and the shame of admitting how I had got it.

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At seven, although too young to equate my experience with a heavenly Father who lovingly wanted me to understand some important truths, I still did learn my lesson!  A few of them being:

-Be satisfied with what you have. Greed doesn’t pay.

-Pleasing others comes with a price. Be sure it’s one you want to pay.

-People can disappoint us. But it’s worse to be disappointed in yourself.

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Was God present with my seven year old, disappointed and embarrassed self at that Christmas gift exchange? Does He really care about such trivial things? I believe He was and He is.

All these years later, I both laugh and cringe for that little girl. I laugh at the absurdity of the gift itself. Who saw fit to buy large sized underwear for a little girls’ gift exchange? I still see myself opening them and cringe at my naive belief that giving in to someone would make them truly like me and my already well formed greed at hoping to receive something even better. And yet I was only seven. Who of us hasn’t wanted others to like us for all the wrong reasons or not been satisfied with what we had and lusted for something ‘better’ even while not knowing what that would be? We are all so human.

I learned about my own inner temptations through a hilarious pair of pink underwear. Nobody could have explained the concept of sin to me better. Not much later I came to the knowledge of needing Jesus, someone much bigger than myself, to fight my own sinful desires and to bring me close to God. It was then I accepted Him into my life and He and I have been growing closer together ever since. Sure I’ve still stumbled and even fallen many times. But I no longer need to sit in shame. I can mourn my losses, learn from my lessons and move on.

Come to think of it, that was possibly one of my most meaningful gifts ever. It’s amazing what you can learn from a large pair of silky pink underwear!!! :D  ;)

Christ + Mass = Christmas by Nina Faye Morey

I remember how amazed I was when I was making cards and my teacher told me how to spell Christmas. Until I was eight years old, I had no idea that the first five letters spelled the title of the King of Kings. ~ Bruce Atchison

While Bruce had no idea as a youngster that the “Christ” in Christmas referred to the King of Kings, I was a young adult before I realized that the “mas” referred to the word, “Mass.” Having grown up in a family that was nominally Protestant, I wasn’t familiar with either the word “Mass” or “Eucharist” until I married into a devout Roman Catholic family.

I still remember how stunned I felt when I heard my husband explaining to our little ones what the word “Christmas” meant. It was one of those “slap the forehead” moments for me. I had never given any thought to the meaning of the “mas” part of the word. Now that it had been pointed out, it seemed so obvious it referred to “Christ’s Mass.” Of course, I knew that it was a commemoration of Christ’s birth, but my family’s holiday celebrations focused more on the secular aspects. I decided to look up the meaning of some of the other words associated with this celebration. I discovered that “Nativity” was derived from the Latin word, nātīvitās, meaning “birth.” Another familiar seasonal word, “Noel,” from the Old French word, noël, is also derived from this Latin word.

As a youngster, I never attended any Christmas religious services with my family. However, I do recall attending regular church services a couple of times with my dad. I fondly remember enjoying stories and colouring pictures in Sunday School on those occasions. In my early teens, I sometimes attended a church service while visiting a devout aunt. A classmate invited me to summer Bible camp one year and, occasionally, to some of her church’s youth activities. But Christmas mainly consisted of Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas presents, Christmas stories, and, of course, Christmas dinner with family when I was young.

After I was married, Christmas came to mean so much more. A major part of the celebrations was attending Midnight Mass with my husband and his family. Then my mother-in-law would have all the family members present over to her house for a late-night snack. To her, a “snack” was no meager amount of food, even at this late hour. I enjoyed this whole Christmas Eve tradition immensely. It carried on for many years, despite the increase in her family’s size through marriage and grandchildren, until she no longer felt able to continue. I cherish those memories and still miss her contribution to our Christmas celebrations.

As a young mom, I wanted to provide a different Christmas experience for my children. Sure, we had the usual festivities associated with Christmas: Christmas baking, decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping Christmas presents, watching Christmas movies, and reading children’s stories like “The Night before Christmas.” But a miniature Nativity scene was added to our holiday decorations, and I enjoyed reading them the biblical story of Jesus’s birth. And, of course, we always attended Christmas Mass—just not the midnight one until they were old enough.

Having discovered both the “Christ” and the “Mass” in Christmas, I now enjoy the full meaning, spirit, and blessings of the season. All those precious Christmas gifts and colourful Christmas lights pale in comparison to the One who is the true gift and light of Christmas:

Every good and perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,

who does not change like shifting shadows.

~ James 1:17 (NIV)

Merry Christmas, everyone! May you experience the peace and joy of Christ in your hearts and souls this Christmas.

Photo Credit: © 2017 Nina Faye Morey

An Unapologetic Merry Christmas - Tracy Krauss

Perhaps you've noticed the trend to replace the words 'Merry Christmas' with  'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings'. I have nothing against these phrases. I use them myself on occasion, and I don't feel offended when others choose to use them. In my own heart I recognize that Jesus is the 'reason for the season' and I'm not about to get militant or political about it.

On the other hand, I have come across several folks who are quite vocal about their disapproval of using the more generic phrases instead of 'Merry Christmas'. The really interesting - and somewhat ironic - thing about this is that most of the people who seem so offended don't really display a very Christian attitude the rest of the year. 

One acquaintance told me recently that when someone says 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings' to her, she ignores them and won't respond. Hm. I wonder... is that what Jesus would do? 

Another person explained - quite vehemently - that he lectures those who dare use a generic term rather than 'Merry Christmas'. "It's all those foreigners trying to take over our holiday!" he spouts. "I tell them where they can shove it. Go back to your own country, I say!" Yikes. Not exactly the best way to emulate the spirit of the season... with or without the word 'Christmas'. 

My husband and I watched a Christmas comedy special featuring a well-known comedian. His opening monologue included a rant about how people are afraid to use the words 'Merry Christmas' these days. He unapologetically wished the audience a 'Merry Christmas' to resounding applause. Kudos to him, I thought with a nod. Then the show proceeded to bastardize Christ by mocking the virgin birth and was full of sexual innuendo and other inappropriate content. What was the point of his opening rant if he was just going to make fun of Christ in the end?

Actions speak so much louder than words. No matter what the phraseology, we must show the love of Christ through our actions; we must be ambassadors of the good news both now and throughout the year. 'Merry Christmas' is a hollow greeting if I don't intimately know and represent the one the phrase represents. That is the true meaning of the phrase.

Tracy Krauss writes from her home in northern BC. visit her website: tracykrauss.com -fiction on the edge without crossing the line-