The observance of Christmas has changed, but the meaning remains the same. It all started with the Wise men who followed a star to worship the new-born King, then \u201cdeparted for their own country another way\u201d (Matthew 2:12). Christmas celebration has been changing to \u201canother way\u201d ever since. I have child-hood memories of real trees decorated with strings of cranberries and popcorn; hanging egg-shells with the insides blown out and the outsides painted bright colors; incoming Christmas cards displayed all over the living room. In contrast, this year we\u2019ll go see yards decorated with hundreds of lights, blinking in sync with music heard only from a specific frequency on the car radio. We\u2019ll receive hundreds of Christmas greetings, but most will arrive via the Internet, only a few will arrive with a stamp on them. We\u2019ll go to a Christmas Eve candlelight service, but will be told by some that real candles now present a fire hazard, thus no Silent Night by candle light. We\u2019ll be reminded that the cost of the gifts mentioned in \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas\u201d has increased another 6% over last year\u2019s cost, now totaling in excess of $107,000. In the midst of changes, God remains the same, as does human nature. We will still give, because God gave. We will still worship the Christ-child, because He is worthy. Christmas observances change. Christmas meaning stays unchanged. Merry Christmas to all.<\/p>\n
Join me this week in praying:
\n\u2022 \u201cO come to us, abide with us, our Lord, Immanuel.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cLet earth receive her King.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u201cPeace on earth and good will toward men.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The observance of Christmas has changed, but the meaning remains the same. It all started with the Wise men who followed a star to worship the new-born King, then \u201cdeparted for their own country another way\u201d (Matthew 2:12). Christmas celebration has been changing to \u201canother way\u201d ever since. I have child-hood memories of real trees…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}