Be warmed and filled

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them,”Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? James 2:15-16

It is the season of giving...we give to the poor and needy, give to those who have plenty, and give to the Goodwill or Salvation Army money or things that were just replaced by the newer things we just received. I struggled this year to come up with gifts to give, especially to family. Two of my children are married and live in small spaces, and the other 2 are moving into apartments with multiple other people. There are few needs that are tangible. Money seems to be the real need, for things like gas and bills, rent and moving expenses. There were a few small items we did buy, and the stockings were stuffed, but the gifts I would have loved to buy them would have been a burden and not a blessing. We need desperately to clean our place out of the multiple things we have here...especially since work will commence on the house...a bathroom that hasn't functioned for about 15 years will be gutted and made to work, and the lights that have been shorted for about 8 years will finally be replaced and lamps will not have to grace the living room. And all the stuff will need to go SOMEWHERE while this all happens. Thus the dilemma of stuff.

A devotion I read this morning said it all about gifts...”rebirth into eternal life. This everlasting gift was the sole purpose of My entering your sin-stained world.” Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, Dec. 24

Pondering this thought, I grieve at how people reject help, salvation, and gifts, especially this one. Why would this be?

I love to quilt...it is just in my blood. If I stay away from it for a while, I think, “Why do I do this? It seems irrational to slowly make blankets for people. Why don't I just get a job, buy cheap blankets and donate them to the causes, and be done with it? More people would be warmed. More people could get help. My house wouldn't be filled with fabric, machines, yarns and needles, if I would just buy the stuff. And it would be cheaper...”

Then I sit at the machine or with a quilt basted on my lap. I look through the books of patterns and colors, and I smile. Some of this is for me as well as for them. I couldn't buy enough blankets to cover a fraction of the needy in the world...sure a few more than I can make, but there is not the love in a standard-issue blanket that is in a hand-made quilt, and everybody knows it, including the recipient. A kid handed a blanket may cover themselves in a hospital bed, but they already have a blanket issued by the hospital. But the home-made one warms the soul...it is the one they snuggle up with, not the one that came on the bed. The knit chemo hat, warm, soft and fuzzy, will cover a bald head with love.

What does this have to do with the everlasting gift above? Jesus came into the world to save us sinners. We are like Him when we take blankets, food, and love to third-world countries, do missions work, and give of ourselves. He could have sent the gift without sending Himself, but He put Himself into the gift...He WAS the gift. And like those who go to help, there are those who would fight against them, not trusting that their gifts were good or their intentions honorable. How many have been martyred for the cause of love and giving? Jesus was. He came to give, and to give His best – life with Him in heaven for all of eternity...a way out of eternal damnation, for heaven's sake. What greater gift can you give your enemy but to bring him to your side and treat him as a son with all the rights and privileges thereof? And instead of taking the gift with gratitude and humility, knowing in their heart of hearts they need it, they insist on thinking that it is a trap, a guise, an evil. When we see those shooting down planes of food and clothing because they do not love or trust, we are grieved. We sorrow over what they could have had and how they would choose to destroy the gift and the giver. But it is a reflection of Christ. He was despised and rejected by most, but gave life to many. He would have given to all if all would have received. He didn't save everyone, and I can't either. But He gave in love to all who would receive, and I will try to, too. He was suspected of having ulterior motives by those who didn't like the fact He was winning over the hearts and minds of the poor and oppressed, and I will be suspected, too. It is ok. If I can be like Him, even in these ways, I will take it.

But the real question is whether YOU have received the Gift, or shunned the Giver. You know you need to be saved from yourself, and He is the answer to the sin-problem in your life just as He is in mine. We are human, so we need Him. End of story. Take the Gift...confess your need for The Savior...He only has your best at heart. It's the gift that doesn't take up more room in your home...but it will fill that empty space in your heart.

Dirty Rags, a New Year's contemplation

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (rag in the NIV). Isaiah 64: 6

This is the end of the year...a time to reflect on the past year's activities, goals, and events...planned and unplanned, joyous and tearful. There are a couple of things that I can reflect on as I get older.

1. How much I have changed over time...usually for the better (pity the people who knew me when I was younger...sigh). This is because God has opened my eyes and heart to things that I used to defend that really needed to be changed...usually by seeing those things in the lives of others and being offended by them myself...and going,” Is that how people see me? Forgive me, Lord! Help me to change! That doesn't glorify you or edify others!”
2. How much God loves me and puts up with me, my family, the world in general...and how gracious He is to point me to the people and resources we need to learn what He wants us to learn.
3. How little what I do counts for the kingdom.

And #3 is where this verse hits home. Being unclean back in the days of Isaiah wasn't just coming home from a long day in the fields hot and sweaty. It was being in the condition of not being able to go to the temple to worship. There were all sorts of provisions that could keep you away from church, and not many were things you could do much about. But suffice it to say that you were not acceptable at that time and could not come into the presence of God. The verses before these tell the tale of the whole of Israel sinning to the point where God was just angry with them...they did not confess and repent, but continued in the sin. They were unworthy to come to His temple and offer the sacrifices that were required. Well, you say, if they were required and the people showed up with them anyway, wasn't God happy that they at least did it? And the answer is NO! The whole book of Isaiah starts with God telling them to stay home...keep your cattle and livestock offerings because they are not going to make any difference because you have no intention of living for Me, in Me, or with Me. The whole thing stinks like your work clothes, like your cleaning rag or menstral cloth...yuck-o.

So what's a Christian to do? In all of the watching of Ebenezer Scrooge this time of year, are we to have a change of heart? To start doing good to those around us because the ghosts are haunting us, showing us who we have been, who we are, and who we might become? Well, sort of, but not quite. There are plenty of ghosts in my life. I look back and see, like Ebenezer, how selfish, greedy, unkind, and rude I have been not only in the way back past, but even yesterday. I reflect on what I have done, what I have given, and see how little it has really accomplished. We all reach the point as we grow older where we realize that life is not all we thought it would be, that we have not achieved the goals we had, that at the great judgment day to come that a lot of life will be the wood, hay, and stubble and precious little of it will be the gold, silver, and precious stones as in 1 Corinthians 3. Isaiah 64: 11 says that all of our precious things will become ruin. We work so hard for them...and as they say, it's all going to burn.

So, every righteous thing I do is like rags...great. Why bother? Because His righteousness is worth it. He is the one who cleans us up...who makes us worthy to walk with Him and work for Him. We were created FOR GOOD WORKS which HE PREPARED for us to do. Ephesians 2:10. We are HIS WORKMANSHIP, saved by faith that didn't even come from us...but through HIM as a gift to us, plucking us out of our sinful state for His usage. I think I have in the past compared this to picking a few bolts off the shelves at the store...out of all the fabrics there, we don't take all of them to make our masterpiece...but we select a few that are willing and able to be used with the pattern that He has chosen. Big, bold prints will not work in some patterns because chopping them up will change their appearance. Grayed, muted tones often will not work with brights unless they are cut very small. We were gifted to be used, to create something warm and beautiful, useful and a reflection of the creator. We as the fabric (in this passage we are called clay, but you get my drift) do not get to pick the pattern or any other part of the process. We have the unnecessary parts cut and are sliced into pieces that are strategically dispersed throughout the top. We are joined with other pieces, often through the painful process of being pricked, layered with the part that holds in the warmth, and backed with the support that holds all of this together. Then we are pricked through again and again to hold all of this together. Maybe more trimming is necessary, and then the edges are bound to hold the whole of life together and keep it from wearing away. Then the whole is useful and fulfilling to the Maker. The fabric was part of the design and ended up where it belonged, but had no idea what the Maker was going to do with it. It was chosen, shaped, used, and loved at the end.

This is the story of our lives. We don't know what we shall become in the new year...happier, sadder, wiser, grumpier, healthier or weaker...but I trust the Designer knows what He is doing and will cut, pierce, trim, and join me to others in accordance to His will. Maybe a part of me will end up a dust cloth and discarded, but I trust that the parts He puts into the quilt will bring Him pleasure and someone warmth. And in that, the year can start with HOPE. My hope is not in me, but in the designer, maker, and quilter of my soul...and in that truth I can rest my fretting mind as well. Happy New Year!

Wrapped as a sign and a gift

She gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger...This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:7 & 12

This is now 2 days before Christmas here in Iowa...there is about 7 inches of snow on the ground, which is a lot for here, especially this time of year, and it is -2 degrees, also much colder than usual for this time of year, but it does put one into the whole Northern Hemisphere Christmas spirit. Was watching Hillsong celebration of Christmas (they are in Australia) and it is a much different picture. We think of Christmas being a winter thing, but it is more likely that Christ was born in the spring, according to things I have heard. But whatever the season it was, the baby needed to be covered. And He was covered in cloths. Swaddling clothes, we call them. The baby was papoosed up, wrapped tightly with cloths, snuggled to keep warm and secure. We don't consider this unusual since we have heard this story since we were children. Baby born, wrapped up in whatever they could find, and laid in a bed of straw in a feeding trough. Humble beginnings. One pastor yesterday pondered that coming poor, no one would believe that the Christ did not come for them, that He was too good for them, too rich, powerful, or out of grasp for them. He was one of the people, and that was more of a problem for the rich and powerful than it was for the common man. The common man loved Him. The rich and powerful resented Him.

But the cloths were more than just a covering for a newborn...they were a sign to the shepherds. Angels told them just a few things...

1. Don't be afraid of us
2. We bring good news for everybody
3. Today the Savior is born in Bethlehem, fulfilling scriptures
4. He will be wrapped in cloths
5. He will be lying in a manger (not being held in His mother's arms at that moment) (giving them an idea not to knock on hotel doors or houses, but to look in cattle stalls)

The first thing they know about the Savior of the world is how he is dressed! And He is dressed like a poor, unassuming baby. Nothing fancy...no fine linen or purple or scarlet marking Him as priestly or royalty. Just normal, poor, and humble. This is how they would have wrapped their own children in their own homes. He was just like them. Poor, rejected, lowly. And lying in a cattle feeder...Mary and Joseph taking a nap, perhaps, after a long night and the strains of childbirth. This was the Savior who identified with them, and they with He. They could come into His presence straight away...no making appointments at the palace or ceremonial cleansing in the temple, both of which would have been closed down at those hours, anyway. Those cloths represented more to those shepherds than they could have imagined...they made Him “him” with a little “h”, normal, human, and one of them. But they knew at the same time that He wasn't just one of them, because they knew that from those humble beginnings their salvation had come. There had been angels shining in the glory of the Lord, but there was no shining in the stable. The glory of the Lord made know His arrival, but the finding of the Christ child was done in the darkness of the night. Maybe it was morning by the time they got to town, or they had lamps lit going from stall to stall. The star was a sign to the Magi, not the Shepherds...who were led to a house, not a stable...so once those angels left and the light that came with them, we are talking darkness. That is how we find the Lord ourselves, like the shepherds...the Spirit of the Lord comes to us in our darkness, shines a light and tells us that the Savior is there for us if we will just go and find us where He directs, and we stumble through the night to that place, and find Him, humble and accessible. He is like us, but not at all...He is so much more than He appears. He had been stripped of His true Godliness and glory at His birth and was wrapped up in cloths, and at His death He was stripped of this earthly life and was again wrapped in cloths at His death. But the unwrapping proved His true self. He didn't stay wrapped...He grew in life, and He reigned in death. And it was all to bring God down to us so that we could someday join Him in the eternal life He brings.

There is no other God like this, people. No other God comes to us. No other God becomes human, lives to teach us about God, dies to bring us to God, and rises to raise us from death to eternal life.

And that is what Christmas is all about. I don't worry about taking Christ out of Christmas...it is taking the gift of Christ and rejecting it...not believing, not receiving, and putting Him equal with the other
gods the world has to offer. The world does not offer Jesus to you. The only God who will share His glory with no one else but His Son and His Spirit offers Him. To celebrate His birth and death as something common and not realize the implications for your eternal destiny is the real tragedy, not the commercializing of the holidays. Take His word into your lap this holiday season and ponder the coming of the King and what it means to you. Hold the baby wrapped in cloth to your bosom and see if you don't fall in love with the Newborn King.

Clothed in blood - the defeat of evil

Revelation 19:11&13

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is scalled Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war...He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.

This chapter of Revelation is chock full of clothing imagery, begun in the last posting. Here we transfer from the bride being presented to the groom, to the groom going out to wage the final battle against the beast and the kings of the earth. If you thought politicians (kings) were corrupt, well, here you go. They have set themselves and their countries against all things godly and true. The earth has reached the point of no return. Jesus is getting the armies of heaven together to wipe out evil once and for all.

And He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood. Thankfully, there are those who have researched this, and again the continuity of scripture makes my heart sing! Isaiah 63:2-3 describes this whole thing in the Old Testament! Wow...

Jesus comes, having found no man righteous to help Him defeat evil, so He does it Himself, trampling Babylon as the grapes of wrath and staining His clothes with their blood. Next He will take on Satan, not bothering to change into clean clothes since they, too, will become stained with the blood of the nations. Powerful stuff.

So, as cloth lovers and women (most likely those who are reading this are women), how do we look at such gore? If you are like me, when the battle scenes in movies start up, I turn away. Seeing the slaughter, even of the evil, is more than I can stomach. When I do catch snatches, the images stay with me for days, haunting me in their gastliness. And yet we know wars must be waged. If we had not sent men to fight in WWII, Hitler and Stalin would have taken over the world, killing more innocent people than live in our own country. When we do not quench evil, it grows, slowly, cunningly, until it overwhelms us. If you would have told the Germans where Hitler was going when he first starting rising to power, they would have called him a madman and never gotten sucked in to his trap. But lures are cunning substitutes for the truth. We see them looking like good food, and when we take the bait, we are trapped. If we had realized it was a lure and not the real thing, we would not have found it appealing.

So blood-soaked garments indicated in that day victory over the enemy. You are still standing, and they are not. They have been taken out. It was a prize to be won, in a sense. In the next passage He does enlist the help of the armies of heaven, but He had to conquer first without them. Then the Word of His mouth will strike down the nations who refused to live by it.

This is symbolic of His victory over sin in our lives. No one else could wage that war, and He did it with His own blood. He let Satan defeat Him, in a sense, but at the same time, that defeat led Him to victory. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22. The sacrifice had to be made, and it had to be the perfect sacrifice. He was it. Then, rising from the dead, He defeated death. Then He recruits heavenly hosts to wipe out the enemies of God that persist in not accepting the salvation He offers. We are saved, evil is vanquished, and He becomes our eternal light, glowing radiantly in heaven so there is no need of another sun. But until that day comes, He still shines victorious in the robe of blood. He is prepared to go to war for my soul and yours. He is the King leading the righteous armies to war. Generals are not seen as evil for warring against an evil enemy...they are seen as leaders in a cause. The cause of Jesus is to ransom captives from the prison camps of sin and have them join Him in wiping out those who would imprison others. To sit in the prison camp when you are offered freedom would be foolish and insane. Let the blood of Jesus ransom you, and then join the fight in freeing others. It is a fight worth fighting. The victory is guaranteed. Wouldn't you want to win a battle you knew you couldn't lose? Wouldn't you want to bring others to a place of warmth, nourishment, and purpose instead of leaving them to languish, half-starved and tortured in body and soul? Jesus didn't see it as an option for me, and so I will storm the gates to free you by giving you His Word. Let's break free and fight the good fight.

Here Comes the Bride - Revelation 19

Revelation 19: 7-8

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 19 is full of clothe imagery, and it starts with the bride, the church, meeting with her bridegroom, dressed in white. This is probably where the western tradition of wearing white for weddings came from. It is not this way in many foreign, non-Judeo-Christian cultures. (No judgment here, just observation!) Many of our “traditions” have Biblical roots that have long been forgotten. But I digress...

So here are the saints, and they are preparing for the wedding day. I don't know about you married gals, but we almost all went out and found the dress that was “Us.” We picked the style, the plainness or the miles of lace and ruffles, beads and sequins, that we thought would make us beautiful in the eyes of everyone, but especially our husbands-to-be. This will not be the case when we enter into eternity...we will be given the best of the best, the whitest of white, and the dress that we earned, to a point...we do not earn our salvation...Christ bought that for us, but we will wear our righteous acts as a thing of beauty, covering any shame, shining brightly for the GLORY OF GOD. We look at the bride as the centerpiece of the wedding. We talk of HER dress, not his tux. What HE wears seems insignificant in comparison to the dress and head-covering (or lack thereof) of the bride. Being a woman and seeing other women at weddings, we all wait to see what she picked to adorn herself. She is the star of the show. Her glow, her tears, her dress...

But not so in heaven...we WILL be gorgeous, but the focus will be on HIM, not us. We are presented to Him as a spotless, valuable treasure, bought with His blood and saved by His grace. The righteous acts, those done to glorify Him on earth and not ourselves, will cover us...therefore the scriptures about the beauty of holiness in Psalm 29:2, 1 Chronicles 16:29, and 2 Chronicles 20:21. All of these can also be translated “in holy attire.” When we praise Him, we are to do it dressed in holiness, in the clothing He gives us to wear. He makes us worthy to come into Him presence and praise Him and give Him the glory that He deserves. He knows the best dress, the right fit, the level of adornment that will make us the most beautiful in His sight for His good pleasure. We don't have to worry that He won't like what He sees as we approach the altar for the wedding, because He provided it for us!

I have a feeling that some will be wearing white, but the adornment level will be pretty low. If there was no concern on behalf of the Christian on earth to act in righteousness for God's glory and not self-gratification, attention from fellow believers, or to make a good impression on the non-believing world for self-aggrandizement, they will be shocked when they compare their attire to one who has lived for God's glory and pleasure instead of their own. If we desire God's pleasure...like Eric Liddell who ran because he “felt God's pleasure” when he did it...and in doing so testified of his willingness to forego the glory of man by not running on Sunday in the Olympics, and instead won a race he didn't train for on another day...He was gifted to run for God's glory and will wear that righteous deed, along with many others on the day of the wedding. For that one act, simple as it was, testified to a God much greater than the talent of Eric. No one thought that his form was good...no trainer of today would take him on because his way of running the race was totally different...head back, arms flailing about, and the fact that he could still out-run the fastest men in the world testified to a Greater God. His insistence that God wanted him to do it, gave him the ability, the love for it, and the place and time to do it in, all testified to God's working in his life...he was different...and he was different because he did all he did, from preaching and missions work, with which we expect people to gain reward in heaven, to running, not just into the history books and later an Academy Award winning movie, to everyday activity and sport. He did it all for God, not for the name of Eric Liddell. Whether we quilt or sew, donate tied blankets or scrap quilts, when we give a cup of water in Jesus name, we are glorifying God in heaven somehow. The angels look on in wonder, our friends and family who have preceded us cheer us on in heavenly arenas (Hebrews 11), and more importantly, our wedding dress gets another piece of adornment so that when we are presented to Christ at the wedding, He is glorified with angels standing around gawking in amazement that those frail, ugly earthly creatures have become treasures in the storehouse of the God they have been in the presence of since they were created. They will marvel. Admit it, people, when you look around, not many of us look like movie stars. Some of us are quite unattractive, even when we try to doll ourselves up. But on the wedding day of the Lamb, we will be stunning, made that way for God's glory. I wonder if those destined for hell will get to see the grand procession of adorned brides and see what it was we were sacrificing for here on earth, those that condemned us for our “conservatism,” political talk for our holiness, those who saw evidence of holiness, separatedness to God in word and deed and thought we were crazy lunatics in the process and condemned us for it. I think they just might ponder the beauty that could have been theirs as well, had their hearts only submitted to the one who would call them to be beautiful brides as well. But we will shine in ways we could never imagine, bringing delight to our Husband. Are you getting your dress ready? Will it be a plain-Jane, or a piece of work worthy of the Great Garment Maker? He is willing to work His fingers to the bone sewing on jewel after jewel if we will just provide them for Him to put on!

Washing by water and fire

You shall purify for yourselves every garment...and you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp. Numbers 31:20 & 24

The laundry is in the machine as I type this. There is one thing about clothing...it gets dirty. It is amazing how body oils and dead skin contaminate clothing, as well as dust, rubbing against things, and dropped food and stains can make clothes that were clean in the morning in need of a good washing by the end of the day. We have explored washing in a previous blog. God calls us to clean our clothes. He doesn't like dirt. He constantly tells His people to wash their clothes, their hands, their feet, and more importantly, their hearts.

This context in Numbers has us cleaning for a different reason, and there is more than one cleaning agent being used in the whole of the passage.

They have just taken their revenge on the Midianites and are coming back from war. Now we all know that war back then was not pretty. It was a bloody, ghastly scene. The clothes that they were talking about here were those worn by those who killed anyone, or had physical contact with any of the slain. And it wasn't just the clothes that were to be cleaned, but everything they had brought back from the war, including the spoils like gold and silver, tin and bronze. Whatever came back from the battle, including the men themselves, were to be purified by one of 2 means – water and fire. If it could pass through the fire to be cleansed, then it was passed through the fire, and then washed. If, like a garment, it could not pass through the fire, then water alone was used. Nothing that had not been made clean in this way could come back into the camp, their living quarters. No impure thing could come in to contaminate the women, children, and homes of the Israelites. A massive clean up operation was to take place outside the camp for 6 days, and on the seventh day they could come back home.

If you have traveled anywhere in the world, you will realize that cleanliness is not held in high regard in some cultures, and diseases spread easily, killing many needlessly. In areas where the Judao-Christian culture has set down roots, there is far less disease spread. God is a God of order and commands things for the good of the people. They didn't understand germs, but God did. They washed because they were told to, not because they understood the purpose of it. That is how a lot of God's word works...if we would just obey it, knowing it comes from the hand of a Loving Father instead of questioning it, we would find that His commands saved us from a LOT of misery...a lot of unnecessary harm.

But there were 2 methods of cleansing. The water we understand. The fire is the other. Scriptures say that our God is a consuming fire, and Revelations describes Jesus as having eyes of fire and His feet glowed like metal in a furnace. Our works are tried by fire in 1 Corinthians 3. God consumes all of the evil and impurity and sends it all to hell to be destroyed forever. If we do not choose to let the fire of His cleansing and testing purify us here, we will suffer it eternally in the world to come. The eyes of God see everything, and nothing is hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13). All things are judged, and the impurities are brought out. But the hope of all this is that when the furnace rages and the impurities rise to the top, they will be dredged off by the Savior and we will be purified, like gold. (Job 23:10) The more the furnace rages, the more the impurities are separated from the true metal. They are burnt off, scraped into the scrap heap, leaving pure, costly gold worthy of great price.

But even when the gold is purified, once cooled, it is washed, polished, and used. Washing of the Water of the Word (Ephesians 5: 25) done by Christ Himself brings us to Him pure and unspotted. When we come out of the battlefield of this world, we will be cleansed from all of its pollutants, all remnants of the impurities that we were exposed to just by being in contact with the defilement of this world. The blood of the war, the oils and soils of the daily grind, and the rubbing elbows with those not of the True Camp of God's people will be washed away so that we can be presented acceptable into God's presence without bringing our contamination into the Holy Place.

So if the heat is on, the battle raging, remember that if we endure the process, we will be more purified, washed clean, and presented before the throne without spot or blemish, with nothing to hide! The fellowship with God will be sweet and pure and holy. Only He can clean us by the fire and the water to make us acceptable in His sight. And that is a good thing, for there may come out of my laundry tub an unseen, untreated stain that may defile the cloth and make it unacceptable. He never washes and leaves a stain behind...

Who is on display?

There were hangings of fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on rings of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement...according to the king's bounty...Esther 1: 6-7

It's almost that time of the year here in the US...the holidays are upon us. I looked on this passage and thought about the banners streaming in towns across the fruited plain. Iowa City has banners placed along Dubuque Street and Park for people to see as they come into town. They celebrate all sorts of occasions throughout the year, announcing events, holidays, and celebrating people of the area. And now it will be too cold and wet for them. The banners will go away until spring, I assume. The weather would just be too hard on them over the winter...but wait! Christmas decorations will be going up... the lights, the ornaments, the spectacle that has become the holidays will be upon us, and they still do the same thing. They are displayed according to the city's bounty. What they do in Rockefeller Center in NYC is far more extravagant than what we can even dream of here in a town of less than 3000. But it puts their bounty on display.

Cloth can celebrate all kinds of events...there are the banners for birthdays and weddings and special events, there are napkins folded like Christmas trees. There are table runners and candle mats to remind us of the seasons or holidays. There is abundance flowing out of cloth cornucopias, and pumpkins and corn and grapes and apples for Thanksgiving. There are stockings on mantles for Christmas. There is celebration in cloth where ever we look.

And some of it is good, and some misses the mark.

Mind you, I have made all of the family Christmas stockings...cross stitched or embroidered, they are there for the filling every year. There is the cloth Nativity, and the cross stitched Praying Santa. Some hit the mark, and some miss it. The teddy bear theme runs through the kid's stockings. They have no real significance to the real meaning of Christmas, and that is the miss. The Nativity and the Praying Santa have everything to do with it. The lights and the tree can mean something if you know what to think about...the concept of Christ bringing eternal life and being the Light of the World can strike the bullseye dead center or miss it completely.

And do you know the Scripture's word for missing the mark? It is called SIN. Wow.

I will not even go on my diatribe about a world that wants Christmas only so it can sell stuff while denying us the “privilege” of saying the WORD Christmas because it might offend someone. We want all the trappings without any of the meaning. We celebrate sales figures instead of the God who gives us the strength to work, the resources to use, and the time to live here on his good earth.

That is what Xerxes did...he celebrated himself for 180 days...he “displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty.” He sinned. He missed the mark. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His majesty...that is what many of the Psalms and Prophets tell us to do. Look on His gloriousness. Look at His bountiful provision with gratitude, not arrogance. Look at the gift of His Son as the reason to give on the Day of His first appearing on the earth. That is hitting the bullseye.

I won't be a party pooper and tell the world not to decorate, but I will still cringe at St. Nicholas being turned into a cartoon character and used as a means to get kids to behave for a couple of months. I will enjoy the colorful lights, the choosing of gifts for loved ones because we love and appreciate them, and the stuffing of stockings because the little things like giving your future son-in-law a filled stocking when he didn't expect it creates a memory. This time of year is the season of giving if we want it to be, or the season of running around fretting, working, and driving ourselves into hating the holidays. If we keep the love of God in our hearts, we can display signs of His coming to earth to save us with pure hearts and great joy. We can watch the Charlie Brown Christmas and remember that we are not the only ones who forget why we are doing this all in the first place. We can look back on the year with gratitude for the good times, and gratefulness for being held in God's hand through the rough times.

As we enter into the holiday season, let's caution our hearts against being like Xerxes and Chevy Chase and Tim Allen, putting ourselves on display. Let us seek to put Christ on display this year, and as long as we live on this earth. Then there will be peace in our hearts whether or not there is peace on earth. The one who deserve the praise will receive it and our hearts will rejoice more and more in His splendor.