Christmas 2025
As a small boy being raised on our farm at the foot of Gordon Mountain, Christmas was a very special time.
Each year, our family, in our valley, looked forward to it.
> Finding the right Christmas tree in the woods behind our farm was the mission. I spent much time through the year in the forest area, building forts. I was always on the lookout for that evergreen, that Dad, my brother and I would go and cut down for our small living room.
> Starting in November at our public school, Echo Bay Public, we began practicing for the Christmas Program, which parents would attend. It was always about the Nativity story and each of us vied for what part we would play. It consisted of some Santa songs, however, our teacher always said, quite firmly that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus and we need to celebrate Him in our Program; and we did. It was a given.
> At the beginning of each school day we always stood, sang God Save the Queen and then recited the Lord’s Prayer. In December, we also added a Christmas Carol.
> At our little country Baptist Church, which was straight out of a Hallmark movie, we would prepare for the Sunday School Christmas concert and if you did not get the part you wanted in the school pageant, you had another chance to get it in the church program.
> What we learned in school coincided with what we were taught in church.
The mystery for me, was Santa Claus. How did he fit in? How did he ever go to every house and climb down a chimney the night of December 24th. We did not have a chimney, rather a round stove pipe from the wood stove. I would ask my father and say, this is a mystery to me. Dad would smile with that twinkle in his eye and say, Bruce, the greater mystery is the birth of Jesus. Don’t worry about how Santa gets into our house. I would say, well… OK, as long as he gets here!
Oh, how things have changed. Today, the world does not celebrate Christmas. Oh, there are lights, Bing Crosby’s ‘I am dreaming,’ Christmas trees, Hallmark movies, etc. Yet, the government is not allowing us to focus on the nativity story in our schools or anywhere else for that matter.
My friend and colleague, Dr. Darrell Johnson, recentlypublished an Advent Devotional entitled “Awaken Wonder”. I quote him.
“Most people who celebrate around the Christmas story have never really heard the story? Oh yes, most have heard about the special little Jewish boy born to a special Jewish couple on a starlit night. And yes, many have heard that the special little Jewish boy is claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Millions flock to hear and sing Handel’s Messiah. But most have not heard that the little Jewish boy was in fact, as Dorothy Sayers put it, “in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God ‘by whom all things were made.’”
The shepherds were surprised and went to look more closely because of the amazing news that had been shared with them.
Jesus continues to surprise us in the circumstances of our lives today. How has He done this over the past year? What do you see in the Baby Jesus that gives you confidence to go into 2026?
What if you journaled your answers to that question and reflect over these next few weeks.
Yes, this Christmas, may you have an Awakened Wonder that will truly bring new peace, new joy and new hope.
Have a blessed Christmas
Bruce
