Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I love everything about it including the smallest details and traditions so commonly associated with the Season.
Dickens had such a talent with description of the particulars of daily life. It’s almost like travelling back in time to Victorian London of the 1840s. In my imagination I can hear the sounds of horses’ hooves on the streets, children playing, frosty shop windows and gritty smells of the old city.
Christmas reminds me of that promise. The reality of that promise is alive within all who have met the risen Christ and place their faith and hope in him. Christ is with us. The road from Bethlehem to Calvary can lead humanity to the sublime love of Christ’s sacrificial act on the cross and provides the means for reconciliation of sinful humanity back to God.
A traditional English Christmas carol mentioned in Dickens’ novel is “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” which dates back to the 15th Century. It carries the beloved lyrics:
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.
The words “rest” and “merry” are prominent in the lyrics. For years I thought the word “rest” meant, well, to rest or relax. Recently I discovered that the word carried different meanings in the Middle Ages. In Ace Collin’s book 25 Day, 26 Ways To Make This Your Best Christmastime Ever , he explained that during 15th Century the word rest could also mean “make” or “keep”. Collins explained “Thus, when "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" was written, the composer's charge was for listeners to let God make a change in their hearts and minds about the good news found in Christ's birth and life." The word merry means “happy” today but in the Middle Ages it also meant mighty. Again Ace Collins explained: “Thus when taken in context, the new meaning of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" becomes "God keep you mighty, gentlemen.'"
Perhaps the person who penned this traditional English carol 700 years ago had a clearer grasp of the purpose Christmas observance than many Christians in the 21st Century. Yes, we should do acts of generosity for our fellow man and celebrate the birth of Jesus, but as the lyrics remind us “Christ, our Saviour was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.”
Remember the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one!”
MDP
Throughout the last half of November my wife was resisting my requests to put up the Christmas tree. She reminded me that it takes up too much space in the living room for my electric wheelchair to manoeuvre easily. She was right. The Christmas tree stayed in the basement until December 1st!
I had to settle with re-reading Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol. First published in 1843, A Christmas Carol immediately became popular and has remained a standard at Christmas for 168 years. My latest reading of A Christmas Carol was not so much for sake of the story (as enjoyable as it is) – this time I am trying to get a sense of Christmas in the early 19th Century.
Dickens had such a talent with description of the particulars of daily life. It’s almost like travelling back in time to Victorian London of the 1840s. In my imagination I can hear the sounds of horses’ hooves on the streets, children playing, frosty shop windows and gritty smells of the old city. A spirit of Christmas excitement and goodwill is portrayed in A Christmas Carol that humanity still experiences in 2011. It illustrates for me that Christmas has given a bond to humanity throughout the generations. That bond is conveyed through the vast treasury of Christmas music and carols, art, literature and traditions.
The most meaningful Christmas traditions should point to Christ’s birth, rather than merely generating warm fuzzy feelings associated with gift-giving, elves, decorated trees and a fat little man with red cheeks (I’m referring to Santa Claus not me).
Christ’s birth carries the same timeless hope across the centuries! Millions of Christians have experienced that hope as they contemplated (however incompletely) the incarnation and placed their faith in Jesus Christ. God became man. Immanuel – God with us, as is mentioned in the first Chapter of Matthew (verses 21-23) and alluded to at the end of Matthew when the risen Christ assured his followers, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Christmas reminds me of that promise. The reality of that promise is alive within all who have met the risen Christ and place their faith and hope in him. Christ is with us. The road from Bethlehem to Calvary can lead humanity to the sublime love of Christ’s sacrificial act on the cross and provides the means for reconciliation of sinful humanity back to God.
A traditional English Christmas carol mentioned in Dickens’ novel is “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” which dates back to the 15th Century. It carries the beloved lyrics: God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy.
Let us commit ourselves to goodwill between ourselves and others, meditate upon our Lord’s birth and expectation of Christ’s return, and make the Advent Season a time to recommit ourselves to the good news of Christ birth, life, death and Resurrection, and to be mighty in our faith and loving evangelism.
MDP
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