Faith, Hope, Love, Music [and the Santa Generation]

[I wrote & first published this on December 18, 2006. I wanted to give everyone more time to read it this year, as it is for the coming holiday].

If I were to tell you now that I haven't slept lately, you might think "oh, college kid. It happens." It does, but finals week has finished for me, officially signaling the end of the semester and the beginning of a well-deserved, highly-anticipated three-week vacation. No, the sleep deprivation is because it is my favorite time of year....the season of Christmas is upon us. I have helped decorate cookies, I have shopped, I have spent--oh, how I have spent--and I have wrapped and wrapped. [I'm a very meticulous wrapper]. Really it's the cookie decoration and beautification of boxes that has led me to lose the z's that become so elusive towards the end of each year.

It's an interesting point in the Western calendar. I think that we simultaneously see the best and worst of humanity during the holiday season; we want so badly to give and give and give unto others that we will cut exponentially more people off in the parking lot, and maul through the stores to ensure an efficient gift-buying process. Families reunite, another two-edged sword. You see your family, but.....you see your family...and somehow that produces greater stress than otherwise. [Do you REALLY want to be told again how you could be better? No.] And you drink away the knowledge of the bills that will arrive shortly after the new year begins [which is just a tragic aside to the beginning of a new year, really]. Or you drink away the experiences you have with your family, whatever. Some people stress out too easily, and relax least effectively. It's not healthy.

Nor is this notion of Christmas...and I have to think there's some merit to our traditions despite that. I love Christmas decorations [I don't like that they go on sale in July or that they rarely acknowledge Christ] but the warm glow of multi-colored lights reminds my heart of joy. I love Christmas cookies and other baked goods made seasonal. They're so good. I hate when they go bad because you couldn't possibly eat it all before it goes stale. I love my family. I hate that we aren't united more andthat we live so far away from each other & that to see them I'll have to leave Oakleaf on Jesus' birthday. I love giving gifts [I don't like not having a plethora of George Washingtons]. It's just a solid holiday, this Christmas. There's so much to it. So much to take in, absorb, and respond to. It can easily be so overwhelming.

I feel like that's the catch-22 of Christmas. It's a celebration....and we find so much to celebrate; so many people, relationships, opportunities afforded us....Christmas helps us wrap us the last year of our lives, evaluate what we've done and whom to, how to do the same or better or never again in the coming year. Which I think is just a product of having such a momentous occasion at the end of the year, not necessarily Christmas. But here it is, it is Christmas, the day of the Christ, and it's lost on a generation writing to Santa for Tickle Me Elmo [TMX--the new generation], remote controlled cars, Barbies, XBOX 360s, Wiis, iPods, guitars, cars, clothes, jewelry, better jobs, healthier marriages, marriage in general, happier parents, more money, more of this, more of that........

I don't think any of these things are bad. Obviously. I just got a new guitar [and I grin inside as I type that]. But I wonder if they really are what we are looking for, if they offer what is needed to speak to the depths of a broken heart. And while many of them have the capacity to aid in doing so [being out of poverty, having healthy relationships, guitars...] I think they are just a means to an end. God doesn't want to see the world's hungry to go a bed made from a pile of grass each night cold and without a substantial meal. God doesn't want to see His beloved detached from the spouse they have, affirmation not being spoken over them, needs left unmet, love not being had. So we have these things like money and marriage. And God gave us guitars because God gave us music and music is the best thing. It's #4 on the royal list....faith, hope, love [the greatest of these being love] and music. That part's not in the Bible though. It got left out.

So like I said, and I feel like it should be reiterated, none of these things are bad; I think they're great. But I think they are only a means to an end. But they are pled to Santa [mythical figure metaphorically standing for talking to a wall] to obtain them, to be happier, to live better. But what if this Santa generation [this era in particular....25' blowups of Santa and Frosty in the front yard are kind of excessive] found hope? [I often wonder what if we didn't create new characters to mark the birth of Christ to be politically correct, but that's another blog, another day.]

Because I think all these material things we've invented, while they speak for creativity, will never satisfy. You do not still play with the toys you threw a tantrum over when you were four [I got the Batcave playset when I was 4 for Christmas; I remember that glorious morning. Lexie, my German Shepherd, enjoyed her stocking of biscuits beside me as I played]. Years from now, you will not listen to your iPod because years back you were listening to a WalkMan and that's just the way things are. But I don't think we're all so materialistic. I don't. I think that Christmas has become a holiday of family and giving, both of which are good things, relationships and selflessness. I read a Christmas card the other day that read inside something to the extent of "wishing you all the magic and wonder that is Christmas." But Christmas is not magic and wonder. Christmas is a celebration of truth, grace, hope, faith...and love. To be so fortunate, to be so privileged, to be so redeemed. That the King of the Mighty Angel Armies [plural] was born so gentle, so humbly to come to know and save and hold the hearts of His beloved.

You.

And it's this time of the year that I begin to wonder what it would have been like, the Savior of mankind born to us after years and years and years of waiting and prophesy and waiting and hope and....waiting. To arrive at the barn, to lean over the manger, to see hope in human form. To look into the eyes of God on earth, to hear His mother singing Him a lullaby. To see light glisten in His eyes and hear Him coo and all those cute things babies do even when they aren't the Only Begotten Son of God Almighty come to save the world from the enemy. Nevermind the coming years in which He will grow and teach and minister and heal and save. That moment, that night in the barn, when grace was given a name....Jesus, "God saves." God saves. He rescues. Love now existed on earth in its purest form, against the forces of Hell that rose to destroy it. The stars shining brighter than they ever had and ever will for a very long time, angels singing as they always have and always will but this time in a vocal symphony audible to human ears. The miles traveled to see Him and bow and weep and laugh and embrace by the anonymous shepherds with the thankless job, cast to the sidelines by the religious right. The anticipation they must have endured, eager breaths containing their excitement as they crossed the fields and searched the town and followed the star and met their God. How privileged. Who were they, but shepherds and men? Who were they but broken-hearted sinners waiting for rescue and redemption? It must have been beautiful.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful & triumphant
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels,
O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas, everyone. May you awake Christmas morning to hope in your hearts, for joy and love are ours to have forever.