Category: Family

What about those Socks?!

Silva

We like to dress them up and call them “stockings” – oooooo – but they’re really just decorated socks large enough to stuff things in.

Reality check:

We hang them up (weird).

We hang them up over a fireplace off a mantle so everyone can see them (weird).

We do this with the expectation that they will be filled with something other than feet (weird).

Filled by a clean, fat man (despite having come down a very thin and nasty chimney) who will ascend back to a sleigh parked on a steep slope hitched to flying venison steaks (scary weird).

The other day, I was looking at our stockings.  My mom and grandmother made all of ours and they are exquisite and fun and festive.  But (as usual) I asked myself, “what are they doing up there?”  I thought about what my kids might expect to happen as a result of them being hung up over the fireplace.  Of course, they expect them to be filled!

Santa (the aforementioned fat man) keeps a list of who’s naughty and nice, right?

We still hang up the stockings.

Ask any kid around Christmastime whether he’s been nice or naughty and you know his first response would be “nice.”  Do an obvious double take and he’d likely make a modification, “not so nice” or “naughty.’

We still hang up the stockings.

Why do Christians hang up the stockings?  Well, we all want them filled with good stuff.  But what about the symbolism?  Any contemplative Christian when asked whether he’s been naughty (“sinful”) or nice (“holy”) would respond with the former.

We still hang up the stockings.

Had you ever considered that stockings are tokens of grace?  When you think about the Christmas tradition of Santa filling them whether we’ve been naughty or nice, our expectation in that case is, “C’mon, Santa, fill mine anyway!”  Don’t we always expect the same from our Heavenly Father?

What about them, anyway?

They are large! I’ve seen some enormous stockings.  I’ve seen some decent sized ones made of stretchy material (like Glad “Force Flex” trash bags that stretch so much you could fit a Volkswagen in them).  These huge stockings mean we want a lot of good stuff crammed into them.

They symbolize that we want a lot of God’s grace in our lives.  After all, He is the only One who only gives good gifts:

Luke 11:13,”If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

James 1:16-17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

We hang the stockings knowing that we really don’t deserve for them to be filled or if filled, only with coal.  We have nothing to offer God except that we:

Lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord!

Hang ’em!

They are hung in prominent display.  For some reason, we don’t hang them in the bathroom or the garage.  Surely, if the fat man can do the impossible and come down a skinny, dirty chimney, he could more easily navigate a window or a garage door!

We hang them out in front of everyone’s eyes. It’s like we want people to see, “I want God to fill my life with grace.  I’m even making it plain and ‘easy’ for Him by making my desire obvious.”  We don’t want Santa to have to traipse all over the house looking for stockings.  We want to make sure he gets it!  That large stocking in the middle of the house symbolizes our urgent plea with God that He fill us with His grace.

Hang ’em!

They are festive and fun. The only time people hang ugly or plain stockings over the fireplace is when they’ve forgotten to get one!  I think about the ones my mom made for my family and I think the woman must’ve spent weeks on each one!  Glitter and quilting and stitching and colors and figures!

Grace is festive and fun.  Do we forget that grace isn’t just about giving us what we don’t deserve but that gift is excellent and fun and exciting?  Our playground is heaven!  All of what we know in our lives as good – places, relationships, food, activities – these are “good” because they are from God!  He doesn’t give boring gifts!  Have we forgotten?  Paul said it convincingly:

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

The question is rhetorical – of course He will!  He has!  Look at your life and for a moment don’t focus on the clouds in your life’s sky.  Look at the stockings you’ve hung: see what He has done?  When you awake on Christmas morning to a full (undeserved) stocking, see what He has done?

Those stretchy socks that you and I hang aren’t the greatest symbol: for a time, they hang empty.  In the life of one who loves Jesus Christ, the socks bursts – all the time – even when it looks empty.

Hang ’em!

Christmas Symbols – Trees

Silva

“So, what is so special about trees and Christmas?”  I asked my ever-attentive family over our morning devotions.  Specifically, Christmas trees – evergreen trees.  I mean, how many of us have a Magnolia in our front room?  (What a mess; can’t stand those trees….)  No, we have evergreens sitting in our houses wrapped in lights and laden with ornaments.  What’s with that?

Trees are significant symbols.  At the earliest point in human history, we see special trees in the Garden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9).  And at the cusp of the new era in the New Jerusalem sits again the tree of life (Revelation 22:4).  There it reads:

Then the angel showed me the river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Wow!  Trees are rich in meaning – ever thought of that?  But there’s more.  Really at no other time of year do we so zero in on a tree as we do at Christmas.  What does it mean?

First, trees do represent life as they have in the beginning and will at the end of time.  Christmas is about the Life of God the Son in human history.  How better to represent that life than by a tree that has always stood for life?  The center piece of our Christmas displays – the place where all the gifts are placed and around which we sit to celebrate – is the Tree.  How appropriate.  At the Tree we are face to face with new life, specifically the new Life that will bring new life to all who believe (John 1:12).

Second, our Christmas tree is an evergreen tree.  Evergreen’s are…always green.  Strange that we would choose such a tree to sit in the place of honor during Christmas.  You can get practical on me and say they are best for ornaments or that they smell nice or you like how they stay green, etc. etc.  Of course those things are true but they don’t quite satisfy.  We like evergreens for the same reason we like eternal life – it endures and will not end.  Ever-greens remind us that life with God is Ever-lasting.  If the tree represents life, then a tree that will always stay green represents a life that will not end.

Trees don’t just represent life.  Trees preeminently represent death as well.  Moses wrote of this symbology in Deuteronomy:

And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree but you shall bury him the same day for a hanged man is cursed by God.

Paul made this personal when he wrote in Galatians:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’

Ah – now we remember: the tree that represents life was the instrument of the Greatest Death in human history.  It is the place of cursing – where God comes against the one who is nailed to it; where He came against the One who was nailed there.  Without the tree, there would’ve been no cursed punishment of sins.  All along God intended to represent life by a simple tree and use it to kill the sins of His people by killing His Own Son on it.

Still, the tree is green – evergreen.  How do we unravel this?  The apostle Paul explains this symbolism in Romans:

You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

All dead to sin or temporarily dead?  Am I free from sin’s condemnation for all time or just until I sin again?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in  Christ Jesus.

  • I am ever-free from sin’s guilt in Christ.
  • I am ever-righteous before God in Christ.
  • I am ever-destined for glory in heaven in Christ.

Ever-green reminds me that what was done on my behalf abide in the annals of the universe forever.  The work of Christ was written with diamond stylus in indelible ink.

Sit around your trees and marvel that such a simple token could represent something so rich and full.  Don’t let its symbolism stay silent – consider does it represent life for you?  Does it represent the eternal death of your sins in Christ Jesus?

Evergreen trees at Christmas – so full and rich!

What should Christians do with Christmas Symbols?

Silva

I recently read a portion of a book written by Noel Piper (John Piper’s wife; he’s pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN).  In it, she talks about their own personal practice of excluding Santa from their celebrations.

She explains why they did it – her reasons made sense to me.  Things like presenting confusing or mixed messages to the children: it’s about Santa!  + it’s about Christ!  Parents often expect their kids will be able to figure out what’s real and what’s not….

Rather than comment on Noel and John Piper’s practice (which is theirs to do as they please), how about Christmas Symbols?

I began our family Advent devotions this morning after I spent some time considering the stockings hanging from our mantle….What do we do with them?  What do they mean?  What do I want my little ones concluding about them and why they appear there yearly?  I think I owe my children a framework to understand all the symbols – they need to be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff, no?

Let’s begin where I began with them: what’s the deal with all the Christmas lights?  A buddy cornered me yesterday and said, “Dude, have you seen my house?”  Um, not recently.  “I’m telling you, you’ve got to see what I’ve done with the decorations!”  Keeping up with the Joneses?  “Crushing the Joneses, dude.  Seriously, take a look!”

So, fully loaded with 14 eager eyeballs, we drove by his place.  We found a resplendent display of white Christmas lights!  I think he might’ve even had some lights not on but the ones that were lit were beautiful.  This morning, then, I asked the kids about Christmas lights – what are they for?  What do they mean?

Once I got past the typical responses (which were correct but…you know me…) I asked them about symbols.  “What does a stop sign represent?” I   asked.  My middle one said, “safety” (Ah, music to my ears…).  RIGHT!  It symbolizes safety when it is obeyed; even potential death when it is not.  I pointed out that many, many things are symbols of other things.  “And Christmas symbols mean special things.”

I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life – John 8:12

“What does light represent?  It is a symbol of what?”  Jesus!

Have you ever noticed how we wrap lights all around the Christmas tree?  Now, I’m not sure why I’ve been doing that all my life, but my wife has as well – maybe you do, too.  One could conclude that it is this way so that there is never a place you could stand and fail to see light.  Since light symbolizes Christ, the implication is that He can never be obscured – He can always been seen by those who look for Him.

I concluded the devotion by telling my kids that it isn’t just Christmas lights that represent Christ.  It is light, period.  Street lights, bathroom lights, oven lights, flood lights, stadium lights, sunlight, car head lights – any and every light is a reminder of the One who is the Light of the world.

Think about it.

Tomorrow, maybe trees and stockings.