Remains of the Day

Excuse me for borrowing the title of a great old Anthony Hopkins movie, but I couldn't help but think of it as we carted boxes and paper and ribbons to the curb for today's garbage pickup. We spent a lot of time wrapping all that stuff. It was easy to tell which packages I wrapped (remember: white men can't wrap) as they looked like they'd been attacked by the Tasmanian Devil... if he was blind and had ADHD. Kami's packages were, as always, perfect. Regardless, all of that was over.

A day spent with my kids and wife (and son in law). We ate -- but not too much. We watched movies on TV. We gave each other presents. Most people would say we spent too much but I would disagree. I want to give it all away. Once, my wife took me through a museum in Europe that housed all the best works of a famous painter. The tour guide was really into his spiel and was ready for the dramatic ending when he said, "Yet, he died penniless." Not having much of a brake on my mouth, I said out loud, "Good timing!" He didn't seem to appreciate the sentiment.

There is no joy like giving. A lot of the season seems to be a waste. We burn up tons of kilowatts with Christmas lights (my house looks like the cover for "We Love Electricity" magazine), spend way too much on wrapping paper and bows that will be disgarded almost immediately, and worry over dinners that take four times as long to prepare as they do to eat.

Why? Because it's fun. It is a family thing, something we do together and for each other. Let other preachers be grinches and Scrooges. Let them rail against the materialism, against the waste, against the remnents of paganism...

By the way, on that last point: we had two trees up on our stage at Rochester Church. One man pointed at them and said, "You know, those things are pagan." I said, "No they're not. God made trees. Sure, the pagans misused them from time to time but we've redeemed these two. They're ours. They belong to God's kids now." I felt like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld: "Pagan? No trees for you!"

As for me and my house, we will celebrate any chance we have to be with each other and to go overboard in giving to each other. We learned from God and His Son how to be generous, how to give away your life to find it. We will not allow the naysayers and nitwits of the age (or the pulpit) tell us that we must frown and disapprove. Because Jesus came, every day is a day of celebration and, on those special ocassions when the world joins in, we will rejoice and be lavish in His Name.

Joy to the World, indeed, people. Joy to the World.