I grew up reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Being from South Dakota, they were almost required reading since much of the Ingalls story took place just down the road from us! I remember the wistful and sentimental Christmas times for this simple family on the farm in the early history of the Americas. As a child I remember thinking how wonderful their genuine homemade gifts of wonder and surprises of joy were. Now, I just think, “My, how things have changed.”
What if we took back Christmas? What if we stopped all the hype and the commercialism? What if we truly expected Jesus to be present in every ritual, prayer and sentiment of the season? What if we celebrated Jesus first coming into the world so fully that all the gifting, indebtedness and business were forgotten?
What if we led this?
Advent – from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.”
Conspiracy – a plot by a group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.
I remember a conversation with one of my adopted Ethiopian nephews just after he had experienced his first American Christmas. He asked us why Santa had never come to bring him gifts in Ethiopia (the poorest country in the world)? My sister, quick to try to save the experience, asked “Well, did you write him a letter telling him what you wanted? Because you have to write Santa to make sure he knows.” After silence, Sam, just eight years old, asked if he could have some paper and envelopes. He said he was going to “write every one he could think of in Ethiopia to tell them to write Santa, because they really needed things and this was really, really good news.”
In this season of waiting we at Abiding Love are joining the Advent Conspiracy, to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. Won’t you join us?
With abiding love,
Pastor Lynnae
