Lux venit

 Built into us by the Creator is a longing to understand God and eternity, to believe there is really hope for humanity:

"By sword, by flame
In death solemn ages passed,
And voices young grow old & weary
Holding fast - hope for the dawning"

The Christian good news is that God sought out humanity by sending Jesus Christ, who brings light to us:

"Lux venit, Sursum corda." Arise, shine! For your light has come!

Those lyrics are from the song below. It's years old, but "Lux Venit" from this album by Michael W. Smith moves me every time I hear it. Enjoy.

The Shepherd

The first Christmas didn't have much to do with the way we celebrate this national holiday today. Over two thousand years ago, the good news of the birth of a "Savior who is Christ the Lord" was announced by angels to ordinary shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem.

No glamorous costumes were involved. The grand, angelic announcement took place in a gritty setting. 

A short film by the director of "The Chosen" realistically presents that gritty setting:

Changed

Is "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens one of your Christmas traditions? Watching the animated Disney version starring Jim Carrey is one of my favorites.

There are a number of different productions. But the foundational text is the same, a story written by Charles Dickens and published in 1843. 

Set in London during the Victorian age, the cranky main character is the self-centered Scrooge. He's persuaded late in life (by ghosts) to give up his selfishness for a joyful life of loving others. 

To get more out of it than ever before, you might want to take the short course Hillsdale College makes available:

We're all messy

Maybe you tried hard to prepare for this day, to give your family/guests the best Christmas you could. Well, good for you! You tried to remember all the details, plan good food and pick good presents. Me too. You wanted to create something beautiful.

image

Some say you're just trying to impress people with your curated social media image. But not me. Your good intentions are just that, they're good. On the other hand (as you already know), you have weaknesses and you're not perfect. Your holiday will not be perfect.

Fallen, broken people are the reason God put on a human body and came to live with us. Jesus Christ is the way we can become children of God-- if we want that. 

Have reasonable expectations for your Christmas Day. You're not perfect. God knows you very well. Come to him just as you are, not as you wish you were.

from Stream

Rockin' #1

When Brenda Lee recorded her "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," she couldn't have known it would still be popular 65 years later. Not only popular, but her song is #1 on the "Hot 100." She's the most mature musician ever to do that.

Music icons are a small world. She's friends with Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood. Mariah Carey sent flowers and congratulations.

On a plane recently, the passengers asked her to sing it:

"We had a lot of turbulence on that flight, and everybody was really nervous. Somebody said, “Brenda, get up and sing “Rockin’!” Before I’d even thought about it, I was up singing. I don't like flying, but that was a fun time for me."

She put out a new video too:

Merry Christmas to you!

from Yahoo

Celebrate

"Immanuel," God with us, that's what happened on that "holy night" of the Christmas song. It's the event which the shepherds were told about, a "great and joyful event," when Jesus Christ was born into the world of humanity.

He was full of grace and truth. The world began to change.

You, who have decided to believe in every bit of Christmas, can celebrate the season right alongside the nonbelievers who can only enjoy the beauty and fun that goes with it twenty centuries later.

Bocelli

World-famous tenor Andrea Bocelli is now singing and recording with his son and daughter. The Bocelli Family partnered with a capella group Pentatonix for a single of Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

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Don't skip it

We human beings look for the meaning of things; we want to understand and know the truth. The search for meaning is a feature built into our very nature by our Creator. 

But yes, it's possible as a human being to deny meaning and transcendence, to insist that there's nothing beyond the material. That's what atheism teaches.

Re-post from six years ago:

Atheists have a new billboard campaign for the season. Their theme is "Make Christmas great again. Skip church!"

So I wonder how this works. Was Christmas great in the past when God was no part of it? If we all skip church, will Christmas be great again? But there's never been a time when the season was empty of God. Since the beginning, its central core has been the birth of Jesus Christ on earth.

photo: mine

I'm glad if atheists can enjoy decorations and traditions. But the joy of Christmas would not last if God were taken out of the season. Eventually nothing would be left but cynical materialism.

There are lots of  cynics who don't have a merry celebration. The good will and beauty of Christmas are just cloying if there's no meaning in it. 

Library's tree

According to a Massachusetts public library, someone or some people were uncomfortable with the library's traditional Christmas tree. So the library chose to cancel it this year.

What about people uncomfortable with the lack of the tree? Don't they count? I wonder if the obvious question was asked: what makes you uncomfortable with a Christmas tree?

Un-woke people like myself are uncomfortable about dissenting against decisions like this one. You can be cancelled at your job or in your club or neighborhood when you stand up for what you really think. 

But the community didn't back down in this case and the tree went up. A local woman says, "[T]his Christmas tree has brought out just a beautiful unity of different voices, people that I think come from different political ideologies, different ethnicities, different religions. But they all got behind this, and it’s a beautiful thing." 

from Washington Examiner

Blessing 2022

Children can be talked out of faith in God and, of course, that goes for adults as well. But you may not have to go very far in life before you see that a purely materialist view of the world is not good enough, that you want to know your Creator.

Christmas is all about the Creator seeking us out. 

When you become a believer, you look forward to God's blessing in your life, in your children's and grandchildren's lives, and in your community. That's what these Christians in the UK are singing about.

We will need the Lord's blessing in the new year. Sing with them and me as you pray for the future of your family and your nation: 

From Hillsdale

Hillsdale College's president sent out a little Christmas greeting which you might enjoy.

Merry Christmas to you!

A Special Christmas Message from Hillsdale College from Hillsdale College on Vimeo.

Christmas beauty 2

Christmas has been inspiring composers of music for hundreds of years. The musical results then inspire the rest of us.

Johann Sebastian Bach was himself inspired by the God of the Bible. His music was "the expression of a unitary … world view, in which all beauty … was sacred because God was one, both Creator and Redeemer."

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J.S. Bach

Here is beauty from his Christmas Oratorio, to glorify God and refresh your soul.

"Merry" mood

We say "happy" holidays, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., but Merry Christmas is the greeting we use rather than Happy Christmas.  

At First Things, it is suggested that there is a reason to be merry rather than just happy at Christmas.  It has to do with joyous delight in undeserved blessing:

"Happy . . conveys a sober, well-earned enjoyment, the satisfaction resulting from hard work and virtuous living. “Merry Christmas” stirs in us an impulse more primitive and unrestrained: The childlike giddiness of Christmas morning, the rush down the stairs and tearing at paper, the intemperate delight in gifts long hoped-for and wholly undeserved.

"Which phrase conveys a more fitting response to the overwhelming, unearned gift of Christ’s birth? Suffice it to say that when our Lord comes I hope I do not greet him with dignified reserve but instead rush at him with the unguarded, unembarrassed joy of a child at play or man at his cups. Merry Christmas to all!"

photo

Don't see it

"Silent Night" -- don't be fooled by the peaceful name. This "dark comedy" is about a life-threatening night. A British family is confronted with disaster on Christmas Eve and must decide whether to commit suicide.

I tagged this post with the "virtue" label though there is little virtue and lots of profanity. But the boy's virtue is courage. To decline suicide is brave and there's more - he calls out the fake God-talk of his parents, challenges adults making claims they can't back up, and thinks for himself. He knows and admits that he needs a grown up. 

If you want only a light mood this Christmas season, don't see it. If you can incorporate a somber mood into the season by thinking about real modern fears, go ahead.

from Evolution News

Kids' words

 Here's the Christmas story as told by kids in their own words, and acted out by grown-ups. 

Celebrate

Christianity is the biggest religion in the world, so Christmas is celebrated globally. Many European distinctives found their way to America in the great waves of immigration: stocking stuffers, lighted trees, Santa Claus, reindeer.

Conjunction

Tonight I will join many of you watching the early night sky to see the conjunction of planets Jupiter and Saturn. They are of course very far away from each other but appear close together on rare occasions. 

Click on astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez's photo (that he took through a small telescope) to see moons and rings:

Two planets in conjunction is an explanation some give for the "Bethlehem star" that guided kings to the birthplace of Jesus Christ. There was one that took place on June 17 of 2 B.C. with planets Jupiter and Venus.

from The Stream

Kids tell it

Enjoy!

Hallelujah

(re-post from 2014)

"Messiah" by George Handel was performed last week in my city. I listened to the performance on public radio a couple days ago, including comments from the announcer about Handel.

There was chuckling and some cynicism about the composer becoming rich.There was debunking of the "myth" that Handel broke into tears at the beauty of the music.

There was amusement at the old-fashioned audience tradition to stand during the "Hallelujah" chorus.  It was suggested that standing is quite unnecessary, and that very likely some of the audience would think it "silly" and would remain seated.

But for a believing Christian, this music goes beyond beauty. The "Hallelujah" chorus is joyous and appropriate - the spirit soars in praise to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. I don't think I could sit through it even if I wanted to.

Someone who had been at the concert called the radio show later to report that the entire audience stood - "without hesitation" he said - for the "Hallelujah" chorus. The radio announcer's cynicism was not shared by the concert audience. On the contrary, they responded from the heart and the spirit.

The whole work (over 2 hours long) is below; find "Hallelujah" at 1:35:58.

MCGA

Atheists had a billboard campaign for the season a few years ago. Their theme was "Make Christmas great again. Skip church!"

So I wonder how this works. Was Christmas great in the past when God was no part of it? If we all skip church, will Christmas be great again? But there's never been a time when the season was empty of God. Since the beginning, its central core has been the birth of Jesus Christ on earth.

photo: mine

I'm glad if atheists can enjoy decorations and traditions. But the joy of Christmas would not last if God were taken out of the season. Eventually nothing would be left but cynical materialism.

There are lots of  cynics who don't have a merry celebration. The good will and beauty of Christmas are just cloying if there's no meaning in it.