Jacki and Christmas by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Christmas is exactly one week away, and this week I’ve been thinking a lot about the kids in the above picture. Mostly about the girl in the bottom left corner. Jacki, better known as Dictionary. I’ve mentioned her before, but what I’ve been remembering about her has something to do with the coming holiday.

I know I’ve told the story of when she taught me to spell brother. That’s one story still talked about in the family all the time, but this one isn’t so funny, just profound.

Jacki taught me how to spell a lot of words actually, but the one that means the most to me is Christmas. I was having as much trouble with that one as I was having with spelling brother then she looked at me and said, “Can you spell Christ?”

I nodded and spelled, “C – H – R – I – S – T.”

“Good. Now spell mass.”

“M – A – S – S.”

“Okay, now drop an ‘S’ and put them together.”

“C – H – R – I – S – T – M – A – S.”

“You just spelled Christmas!”

All this came clearly to my mind on Sunday when one of the speakers at church mentioned that Christmas stands for Christ’s Mass, a time to celebrate and worship Christ in the ancient Catholic church.

In other words, Christmas is all about Christ, which reminds me of another event that happened several years after I learned how to spell Christmas. I was around thirteen or fourteen when I noticed a sign painted in a shop for the holiday season, but it didn’t say, “Merry Christmas!” it said, “Merry X-mas!”

It appalled me. It still does, because it’s taking Christ out of Christmas! This is so wrong. 

The above is just one picture of my living room, its a few years old, but I can tell you it wasn't Christmas when I took it.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but when I was in that accident a couple years ago, a couple friends came to my place to give me a blessing. One of the two friends had been to my place before, he knew about my collection, the other hadn’t. When he walked into my apartment, he said, “Oh, you’ve already decorated for Christmas!”

It was in early November and my tree wasn’t up yet. My Nativities were all over, as they are year-round, but that’s because I don’t want to worship my Savior just at Christmas or Easter, I want to worship him every day of the week.

Frankly, I never understood why people only display their Nativities at this time of year. Why limit it? Does that mean you only worship him at this time of year, but not the rest of the year?

And then there are all those decorations people put up at Easter. I don’t get those. The only décor I’ve seen at that time of year that actually has to do with Christ is the cross, something we don’t use in our faith, but everything else has to do with the Easter bunny, colored eggs, and candy.

Then again, the majority of the décor for this time of year has to do with snowmen, Santa, reindeer, Christmas stockings, toys, and candy. None of it has anything to do with the original intent of either holiday. They have become commercial opportunities and possibly some time off, but little else.

And what of the rest of the year?

This makes me think of the people who only show up at church at this time of year. Growing up, I always participated in the midnight services at the Lutheran church I grew up attending until I converted, and every year as the children’s choir paraded into the sanctuary, I was always surprised at how full the pews were. Way more people than normally showed up at the regular Sunday Services.

And the thing is I still see it. People who only show up at church for special occasions. I admit, in my church, it is often because all the extras are family who are visiting for the holiday or a special family event, but there are still a few who should attend our “congregation” every week, and don’t.

Then again, Jesus Christ never said attending church every week makes you righteous, nor did he say decorating our homes for Christmas or Easter makes you a devout member. In fact, its more the opposite. He doesn’t want us to worship him only a few days out of the year. He wants us to worship him twenty-four/seven, 365 days a year.

So, I guess it doesn’t matter if someone spells it X-Mass or Christmas, what matters is if your focus is on the presents under the tree or the babe in a manager.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And Happy Writing.