Christmas to an 8 year old

Isaac told us a couple weeks ago that he wrote a story that was going to be in the newspaper. Besides that the details were slim. He didn't know the name of the paper, when or what the story was about. Consequently we forgot about it. On the last day of school Isaac came home with a paper called What the Holidays mean to me: a special publication of the Gresham outlook and sandy post. When we finally found his name, which was difficult because pages 11-18 didn't make it home, I was delighted. Here is what the holidays mean to Isaac:

"My favorite holiday is Christmas. I love to decorate the tree. When we get the tree I helped to carry the tree with my dad. We tied it too the top of the car. We bring it home and decorate. First we put on the lights. Then we put on the angel. Speaking of angel. Jesus was born on Christmas. The angel watched over Jesus. The holidays mean to me a king." (edited for the sake of you being able to read it. Page 19).

I just loved it. I hope that the holidays always mean to him a king. This was a good note for me to read as I was contemplating how we honor Jesus with our traditions. It seems that through the hustle and bustle of the season we have conveyed the message that Christmas is more than presents, its about the birth of Jesus our lord and savior. Not once did Isaac mention presents in what Christmas means to him.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas and Christmas traditions. My youngest son is six and I was so happy to see the look of delight on his face as he recounted our families traditions. It just warmed my heart to share in the memories from his young point of view. My husband is also a tradition fanatic, more so than me.

As I reflected on the traditions that are important to me and to my children I began wondering about what the traditions are meant to celebrate. I mean we are remembering Jesus' birthday but most of our traditions focus on us, more specifically presents and a tree. We get together with family and stuff ourselves but is that really how we should remember the birth of Jesus? I want to know how to celebrate and remember the birth of Christ so that He is the center of all our traditions. But I'm not sure how. I also don't want to be extreme and purge every trace of santa.

What traditions do you have? How do make sure to honor and include Jesus in the celebration?

Unforeseen difficulties

I can't imagine what it is like to live in a country and not know how to speak the language. Our neighbors speak Spanish and the children do a lot of interpreting for the parents. In our community there are many families that speak Spanish and even a little grocery store. In that respect things aren't that difficult. However there are little things that language barriers make impossible. Things that I would never think of. Just the other night the kids showed up at my door with a phone and a coupon. She said can you order pizza for us? It had never dawned on me that simple things I take for granted would be so difficult.

Have you been persecuted?

I have this class on the Gospel of John. On Thursday my professor asked if we thought we should be persecuted as Christians. Of course immediately everyone's reaction would be no. I mean who wants to be persecuted? But there are the passages where Jesus says that the world first hated him and if we follow him it will hate us as well.

Well if we thought his first question was hard to swallow his second sounded absurd. "Should the church, in America, seek to be persecuted?" I'm not sure I've ever heard seek to be persecuted as a phrase before. I mean as people we seek whatever is comfortable, easy, pleasureable. The idea of seeking pain sounds so foreign.

One person in class said that if the church, all denominations, got together as a unified body and decided to pull out of politics that we would be persecuted. He thought that would be a great stand that the church could make.

During class I was quiet. I wasn't quite sure what I thought yet. As the day went on I realized that I don't think the church should take a stand against politics but against pop culture. I don't think that politics is necessarily oppossed to the christian faith but I am sure that pop culture is. If you listen to the lyrics in songs, see the images displayed in movies and the themes found on primetime its apalling. Not only is the content of this culture opposing my values but it infiltrates my life. If I choose to spend my time investing in pop culture it means i'm not choosing to invest in my faith, my family, my marriage...The time has to come from somewhere and sadly its generally from my marriage because my kids go to bed before primetime. It also has a tendency to take over my thoughts. What am I suppossed to be dwelling on? I'm pretty sure its not desperate housewives or survivor.

Listen to how we even choose to define pop culture. Its a culture. Its a way of life, a way of thinking. I believe however that we are called to be counter cultural. If the church is going to unite to take a stand against something I hope that we could stand against something that is pervasive in everyones life. After all how many people really think about politics each and every day?