Why I can’t even wish someone merry christmas?
My son wanted to know that. By just wishing somebody merry christmas does not make you dishonour your own beliefs. It is a time that people spend time together and are happy – that is good isn’t it?
My sister sent me a lovely email. Two of her daughters are visiting her. So she sent me photos of the flower arrangements that Cindy, she’s my niece from Switzerland. It is not so often that they can there at the same time. It makes me really happy as my sister is going through a difficult time an she needs the love her daughters.
I love my sister very much, and as I have written previously in my blog, she has been my inspiration and my role model. And she is a child of God. She has done so much for me, that I literally owe my life to her!
She describes the meal they, roast leg of lamb, veggies done in the oven and homemade ice cream and a bottle of French Champagne, I know you can only get champagne in France, I lived and worked in the champagne district. But when my sister wrote that Robert, that’s my other niece’s friend and he is a real wine connoisseur – a true blue oenophile, he is passionate about wine and loves tasting wine and can tell you the gastronomic details. I have never had the privilege to meet him in person, but I know that if my sister said Robert brought some French champagne, I would not be surprised if it was Laurent-Perrier or Perrier-Jouët!
The table was set so beautifully with candles, serviettes with red accents. My sister really loves beautiful things and she deserves it. I would want to assure her that Father loves beautiful things too, and when Joshua comes back we have been invited to a meal with him which will be set even more exquisite, I don’t have anything nearly smart enough for that occassion!
Why do I tell you all this – because I know her heart, she is royalty. In the very next line of her email she wrote “Nevertheless I don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas!”
What prompted that? A sense of I don’t really deserve to have such pleasures. I can’t really say what prompted her to say that, I am probably 10000 miles away. But we had a similar childhoods and still have issues to work through. She knows the issues I was dealing with and knew I was not worth the air I breathed.
But this is why I want to shout – stop wishing me merry christmas, what Father has planned for us is so incredibly greater, so much more inspiring! When I was deep in the black hole, Father pulled me back up, and said He will have none of that. Don’t I know that he knows all about me. He was with me when I was being formed in my mother’s womb (I loved mother and I know she loved and had sacrificed so much for my sister and I – in the end it was my sister who care for her. He and Joshua had chosen me to be part of the team Joshua is building and the gates of hell will not be able to stop his team (Mat 16:18). Through the preaching of Joshua I learned what the true good news is, the Kingdom that Father has been planning since the beginning and that Joshua is coming soon to inaugurate! It will be great.
Am I being the grunge who stole christmas? Perhaps. Of course I am glad that families get together like my sister did. But Joshua was not born at that time. We were never taught to celebrate his birthday. Instead Father gave us his feasts that foreshadows his plan for us. All the christmas traditions, including the many beautiful carols that are played endlessly on the radio and the shopping malls. I used to believe that if one ignored the santas and sleigh bells and colourful wrapping paper, “Christ is born today!”
Joshua certainly deserves our honour. Father has crowned him with honour and glory – he placed him at his right hand, do we grasp what an esteemed position that is? But the christmas traditions prefer to depict him as a baby. That is the subtle deception. In the place of the vision of the soon returning King coming in power and glory to rule the earth with justice and love, Christmas gives people the blatantly false traditions and feel good music, and show him as a cute baby, anything just don’t show him as the one sitting at God’s right hand and coming soon!
These are some of the decorations in our facility to honour the ‘festive season – I cringe!’ So effective is the conspiracy to hide the truth that even people of other faiths who thought Christianity was ridiculous are now buying christmas gifts.
& 2U2
So it has been a “and to you too” day for me. I have been wished “merry christmas dozens of times today. And I reply simply “and to you too”. What I really want to say is you don’t know what you are missing, it is so much grander and more exciting!