Some will see the title of this post and move on, assuming they know the subject matter by the mere title. After all, who wants to hear more pontificating, pronouncing, and ruminating about the events of last Tuesday? Who needs more whining or gloating, depending on your point of view…
That is not the subject of this brief post.
Ten years ago, on Election Day 2012 (November 6th) I was at Arrowhead Mall in Glendale, AZ, making an ever-so-brief trip to a tailor shop in order to have some new pants hemmed. It was a rare mall visit for me. Christmas decorations had sprouted up like weeds after an Arizona monsoon, or, if you prefer, like Wisconsin mosquitos after an early Spring rain. Of course. And the space for Santa was marked off and decorated. But I was not ready for what I saw next.
A child sat on Santa’s lap, nervously looking at the fat man with the white beard and “posing” for pics with the guy hired to play the jolly old fellow in the red suit.
This stunned me. November 6th? Election Day? Santa in the mall? Yes, the holiday gets pushed earlier and earlier every year. It’s all about sales. Nothing else. The push isn’t about family or giving or any sweet, syrupy secular notions about “Christmas.” It’s about sales.
This so traumatized me at the time that it took a week to “talk” about it. I still remember it ten years later.
In the end, everything centers on something/Someone else. In the end, election results and holidays center on Jesus. Every day life centers on Jesus. The major things in life, and the countless trivialities of each day all center on Jesus.
I know, it’s early – only November 16th. But as we head into this busy/crazy/silly season of over-hyper-focus on less important matters and underwhelming attention to the major things, please remember one thing. Enjoy the holidays as you uniquely enjoy them, but please remember what/Who really matters: Jesus.
Get a head start on Christmas, but be sure to make it a “Mary” Christmas. “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 EHV)
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
That is not the subject of this brief post.
Ten years ago, on Election Day 2012 (November 6th) I was at Arrowhead Mall in Glendale, AZ, making an ever-so-brief trip to a tailor shop in order to have some new pants hemmed. It was a rare mall visit for me. Christmas decorations had sprouted up like weeds after an Arizona monsoon, or, if you prefer, like Wisconsin mosquitos after an early Spring rain. Of course. And the space for Santa was marked off and decorated. But I was not ready for what I saw next.
A child sat on Santa’s lap, nervously looking at the fat man with the white beard and “posing” for pics with the guy hired to play the jolly old fellow in the red suit.
This stunned me. November 6th? Election Day? Santa in the mall? Yes, the holiday gets pushed earlier and earlier every year. It’s all about sales. Nothing else. The push isn’t about family or giving or any sweet, syrupy secular notions about “Christmas.” It’s about sales.
This so traumatized me at the time that it took a week to “talk” about it. I still remember it ten years later.
In the end, everything centers on something/Someone else. In the end, election results and holidays center on Jesus. Every day life centers on Jesus. The major things in life, and the countless trivialities of each day all center on Jesus.
I know, it’s early – only November 16th. But as we head into this busy/crazy/silly season of over-hyper-focus on less important matters and underwhelming attention to the major things, please remember one thing. Enjoy the holidays as you uniquely enjoy them, but please remember what/Who really matters: Jesus.
Get a head start on Christmas, but be sure to make it a “Mary” Christmas. “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 EHV)
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
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