Tag: Christmas

  • Courage (A Christmas Day Message)

    Courage (A Christmas Day Message)

    It’s Christmas Day. A baby cries. It will not be the last time. A mother is tired. It will not be the last time. Hope muscles her way through the naysayers to the edge of a ledge in the dark and prepares to fly. In response to the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in 1986, Ronald…

  • Jesus Without Tinsel (A 7-Year-Old Doesn’t Get a Christmas Tree)

    Jesus Without Tinsel (A 7-Year-Old Doesn’t Get a Christmas Tree)

    In 1939 Eugene was 7 years old. And his mother decided they would not get a Christmas tree. She was a woman of conviction and had seen a passage from the biblical book of Jeremiah in a new way: “Learn not the way of the nations… for the customs of the people are false. A tree from…

  • Making Christmas Meaningful

    Making Christmas Meaningful

    Christmas is like water. It can be a great source of nourishment—but it can also drown you. The beauty can be eclipsed by a distracted extravagance we can’t afford. So here are 12 ideas to help make Christmas more meaningful for you and your family. (FYI, I’ve borrowed many of these ideas from friends and…

  • If You Make It About Presents, Guess What?

    If You Make It About Presents, Guess What?

    I think we all want Christmas to be awesome. Filled with awe. And as I drive through the neighbourhoods and see multi-coloured lights going up as the snow comes down in beautiful slow motion, anticipation builds. And it’s a strange time. For many people this season is quite sad, especially as they think of loved…

  • The Problem With Christmas (and the promise)

    The Problem With Christmas (and the promise)

    “We should get out of Christmas.”  That’s what a very devout friend of mine recently said.  She meant that we should just stop the whole candy-cane-wrapped production because by playing the game we are often a part of the problem. What problem?  That the happy-face-tinsel-festival eclipses the Messiah in a manger. There are a lot…

  • An Open Letter to the Unborn Jesus

    An Open Letter to the Unborn Jesus

    Dear Jesus of Nazareth, Saviour of the World: You are not born yet. Your mother is in her third trimester. People have been gossiping about who the father is. But we know that the father is the Father. We eagerly await you. Wise men are also seeking you, so perhaps we’ll tuck this letter in…