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Joyful

12/14/07

Joyful

Permalink 07:15:50 am by cassie, Categories: Announcements [A]

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death?s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Feeling distinctly the Bored Suburban Housewife today, having done most of the important household chores and finished the Christmas shopping early (imagine that!), I have lugged myself, my cute little lappy, and some mittens and gloves up to a Starbucks to enjoy a pepperminty hot chocolate and get some homework done for work. Ironically, though my actual orientation period at work only lasted a meager four weeks, the homework for that orientation has woefully followed me all the way to now, fast nearing the four-month mark. Enough about work, though. I haven't had any of it this past week, and despite my complaints about it, waking up at the buttcrack of dawn to drive 45 minutes only to be greeted by a lot of, well.. buttcracks, is almost always preferable to me than sitting around at home trying to think of things to do. I do all my housework and then I do some reading and then I look at basically all of the internet until all that's left that I haven't surfed is a bunch of adult sites and Hillary08.com. Then I think of things I need to do outside of the house and I get ready to go out and do them until I realize that gas costs lots of money and I don't really want to spend money. So I sit at home some more.

So today, I'm snuggled up in the ambient lighting and warm music of Starbucks. I know it's awfully SellOut and very snobby and all that and that all those frappachinos are fattening and overpriced, but I find that even when I go and buy a simple coffee (which costs no more and no less than a Dunkin Donuts or even the cheap, nasty coffee I used to buy from the kiosk in the nursing building at school), I'm always the picture of relaxation. For anything anyone wants to say about these Starbucks dudes, they sure know how to sell a coffee. The baristas are always nice, the coffee is always strong and they'll take even the most complicated of orders with ease. And I have found the secret to ultimate cheapskate chic - the Starbucks in the mall is close enough to the other stores that I can pick up someone else's free wifi. Joy to the world!

I'm very much in a Christmassy mood this year, which is somewhat surprising for me. I'm no scrooge ? well, mostly ? but usually I feel like I could maybe do without Christmas. I love the sentiment of the meaning I ascribe to it, the symbolism of carols and hymns proclaiming a virgin birth, but as far as the whole rest of it, I have always thought I could do without. I hate Christmas shopping, I'm the worst gift-giver ever, and I struggle with separating the holy from the hideously profane that somehow worms its way into the whole situation. I'm not talking about Santa Claus. He's the least of our worries. I mean everything else ? the money, the out-gifting competitions, the complication of such a simple message. I fully understand why some Christians don't agree at all with celebrating Christmas.

All the same, there is something holy about contemplating the manger scene. The helpless-babe-but-not, Mary and Joseph so young and probably confused, even if they didn't know it. And while it is holy, in reality it must have seemed somehow not very holy to be there amongst the animals and the elements, the bloodiness and messiness of birth that can make even the most sanitized and white of hospital rooms seem dirty. And yet, lurking under the surface, a tension that must have made all that were there think on the question that was boiling in their brains ? could this little baby be the Messiah?

For one moment, He was a baby, and almost the next, so shortly, He was clearly God and Christ and Messiah. And now He reigns. How could this be?

Weeks ago, Mark and I went to the main street holiday stroll up in Nashua, NH, and amongst the free samples or crackers and wine and cheese, we went into one of the open stores, Aubochon Hardware, and found a lanky guy with a goatee and no shoes on, singing carols that were not at all Ambiguous-Winter-Holiday friendly. They were carols about Christ and His mission. And then he said the thing that nobody's allowed to say these days ? he said that in the midst of this war and the sadness and the longing for peace, that the reason we don't have peace is that we do not have Christ. That Peace On Earth is a great goal that we should strive for, to be peaceable among men, but that peace begins in our hearts, as we settle the great war that strive within. We can stop searching, he said, stop despairing. We can have peace.

2 comments

Comment from: Marg [Visitor] Email
MargIsn't it great that there are still some, bearded, barefoot
Un-PC guys out there! God uses the unique and the normal.
12/15/07 @ 07:17
Comment from: John [Visitor] Email
JohnMerry Christmas, guys. And yes, Starbucks is selling out, but if you vary your sellout locations then it balances your carbon, er, I mean capitalist footprint.

Come see my pathetic blog rants sometime.
12/25/07 @ 18:37
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I like to multi-task: wife, writer, nurse, Christian, ne'er do well. I do all with equal gusto.

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