SEASONS - QUESTIONS FROM A FRIEND AT CHRISTMAS

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

I was asked by my friend to explain what Jesus means to me at Christmas time.  She had no idea what a loaded question she was asking.   I don't think my answer would be very typical.  Sometimes people find my beliefs a bit too complicated, but to me it is all really quite simple.  I just like to get in all the facts.  I mean if Jesus went to all the trouble to be born of a virgin, to live in the flesh and to leave the throne of heaven for you and me, then why shouldn’t I want to get the facts right?  After all, Jesus stands for truth and I’ve come to appreciate that very much.  My truth may sound a little different at first, because the world has twisted the truth a great deal.  I’m not telling the exact same word for word canned story as a lot of others that you hear, but I AM telling the story, I’m just telling it the way I feel Jesus has shown it to me; so here is my answer to the loaded question:

My first thought on all of this is that knowing and having a relationship with Jesus actually makes the whole year feel like Christmas.  Every day; all the time!

Of course, to be honest with you, I must tell you that I think Jesus was born in a Sukkah during the Feast of Tabernacles sometime around late Fall, most likely in September.  All evidence from scripture points that way.  But don’t let that make you think I do not celebrate Christmas!  I do indeed!   I see no reason not to celebrate His birth all year long, and to be more specific, I have my reasons for believing that Jesus was CONCEIVED sometime in December.  Just do the math.  It confirms a lot for me.  If Christ was conceived in Mary's womb around the end of December, about nine months later would have put his birth during the time of The Feast of Tabernacles in late September.  So I celebrate the conception of Christ (the Annunciation and Incarnation) in December and the birth of Christ in early fall.

When most people are celebrating the birth of Christ at Christmas in the month of December, I am actually celebrating  The Conception of Christ, which I perceive to be even more of a miracle than His birth into our world.  

It is truly a major miracle that a virgin gave birth to a child/God who came to save the world and become our greatest King of Kings!  What a reason to be celebrating!  

I can surely join in on that.  

I love the time and enjoy contemplating what must have been going on in Mary's heart during those days.  It teaches me so much about how to love Jesus.

When a child is conceived you begin to prepare for the child to come, just as we do when we contemplate and celebrate Advent, therefore; I join in with pure joy in celebrating the season of Advent and I rejoice in the fact that Jesus became our greatest Gift From God.  

So I guess you could say lighting the Advent candles is my first contemplation of Jesus during the Christmas season.   It makes me think of the child Jesus who was coming to earth; and the man Jesus who will one day return to earth.

Then there is Hanukkah, which I have come to know as a shadow of the coming of The Messiah.   It usually falls right in December too.   Everything in the telling of the story of the miracle of the oil and the seven more days of light that we see in Hanukkah is a type of Christ coming as the miracle that becomes the light of the world.   How appropriate to celebrate the fact of the miracle of His coming close to the time of celebrating the Conception of His life on earth.   

This time is yet another glorious reason to discover  more of Jesus inside the times of my year.

You might just make this summary pretty simple by saying:  I love Christmas so much that I celebrate it four times a year;   1) Advent  (anticipating the prophetic birth of Jesus, and anticipating His future return as Messiah and King),  2) Hanukkah (thinking of the prophetic miracle of His coming to be The Light of The World),  3) Christmas Day (celebrating His Conception by The Holy Spirit and recalling the Annunciation of Mary and  The Incarnation and all of the things that happened when Mary first learned the Christ Child was living within her) and  4) The Feast of Tabernacles (celebrating the actual birth of Christ.)   Now that’s a lot of Jesus and a whole year of celebrating Christmas!  That is a lot of celebrating!  Why not?  We have SO MUCH to celebrate!  

I love each part of the season and the way we celebrate His coming to earth in the flesh, and the recognition of  Jesus actually stooping down to be like us in order to save us.   All of these four celebrations during the year just build on top of each other and reinforce my further celebration of his physical birth at The Feast of Tabernacles, also called Sukkot; the fourth and last time of the year when I celebrate his  actual birth.   On top of that - I like to celebrate the Epiphany later!  We can't leave out the coming of the wise men; but that was probably two years after the birth of Christ and not necessarily in December and they may not have met Jesus in a three sided shelter; but possibly a house in Bethlehem, (and that may be yet another blog post.)  

I LOVE stretching out the significance of God's grace, and remembering some phase of this miracle of Christ all four times each year.  When you think of all the little details; there are actually two times to look back AND forward and realize much of the symbolism in some days was given as a shadow of what was to come, and a telling of what IS to come.  We see these things with Advent and Hanukkah; then on Christmas Day we enjoy celebrating His conception at Christmas time; and then in the next Fall (nine months later) we will be celebrating His actual physical birth at The Feast of Tabernacles.   What fun it was to me when I first learned that the manger was actually a sukkah, and the Christ Child was God's festival gift to us!  When Mary and Joseph could not find a place in the inn, they found a sukkah that had been used to shelter the animals.  It was next to a cave.  If you want to read how I've told that story to my grandchildren, look at this link: http://dancinginseason.blogspot.com/2016_10_12_archive.html.

So the time after Christmas for me is comparable to waiting on a baby in real life!  It is nine months of anticipiating Jesus and the Festival of The Feast of Tabernacles.  All year long I'm anticipating the coming of Christ into the world and celebrating it with my family inside our little sukkah.   All four celebrations are spread out time-wise, but all are very timely and significant.

Another amazing fact I find in these seasons of time is that the longer I walk with Christ through these different aspects of Christmas, the more He teaches me about how to live a more glorious life every other day of the year.   

I have come to cherish so many traditions that remind me of Who Jesus Is, and what He has done for this world.  I feel grateful for each reason that comes in each season.  This keeps a healthy balance in our home of  more Jesus and less of the world.  

So this year, and every year:  the first reminder of Jesus for me is seen in lighting of the Advent candles around the Advent Wreath, then the Menorah at Hanukkah.  

One thing I remember during Hanukkah is that even though I was not born of a Jewish nationality, I have been adopted and made a blood relative through the blood of Christ.  So, you might say I’m basically an adopted member of a Jewish family; but loved just as much as if I were born Jewish.  So I feel no guilt at all about celebrating the Hanukkah story along with my adopted brothers and sisters.  The same Father loves us all.   The beautiful story of Hannukah tells us about how God always sends miracles right on time, just the way they need to be delivered, in just the right packaging, and they always come just when they are most needed.  You know, that was what happened when He sent the package of Jesus into the world in the simple form of little child.  The miracle of Hannukah expresses the prophecy of Jesus.

I’ve read the Gospel of John, and I know Jesus celebrated Hanukkah; so why wouldn’t I?

It happened long before His birth, but He kept the Family Traditions going.  So why shouldn't I?  

I read in John of Jesus walking on Solomon's porch at the Temple during the Festival of Lights.  This was a Hanukkah being celebrated long after that first one when the oil lasted for eight days.  At the time that John wrote, Jesus was about to bring an even more significant oil into the world, and an even more significant miracle of light.   

That first Hanukkah when the Jews were able to finally return to the restored temple to worship God; God made one day's worth of oil last for eight days.  Now I look at the candles of the Menorah as we light them during Hanukah, and I think about the oil.  I note how the oil of the Holy Spirit fills me up and makes me shine as a reflection of the love of Christ.  

I only have enough love in me to last possibly for one day, but with the oil of the Holy Spirit and the Light of Christ, I can keep my light shinning long enough to last for many more days!  By some great miracle, it is actually enough to last until Christ returns again in the Second Advent.  And I can always go back and get more of this miraculous oil!  It is never used up! Jesus made it all possible. That same Jesus, who was the little child that grew into the Savior of The World. 

As I keep looking at the candles, and I keep thinking of how Christ is the light of the world, I can see Him shinning in all of our faces as we gather together to celebrate whether it is to light the candles at a special dinner table, or the candles of the Menorah, or the Advent Wreath, or even to light the Christmas Tree.  He is the true light that shines out, no matter where we chose to seek Him or look for Him, we can always find Him if we just keep on searching with all our hearts.



So; as I have already mentioned, the second tradition I usually see Jesus in on the way to Christmas is the lighting of the Advent Candles.  There is one candle for faith, hope, and joy, and the white one in the center that we light on Christmas Eve that means LOVE and stands for Christ.  These candles remind me that Jesus once came to live among us, to be like us, and that He will one day return again to save us from ourselves, and to help us learn to be more like Him.  

He is coming for us, the true Church to be His Bride; and we will live with Him forever!

The Advent candles always remind me of this, and every year they help me to renew my strong belief in Jesus as Messiah of the world.  So it is that sometimes when I light the candles, I'm actually thinking of weddings, remembering The Marriage Supper of The Lamb when my Beloved will come for me.  I pray that it will not be a long wait.

I know He is coming again, and I think of it every time I look up into a black velvet sky and see a star.  It makes me remember that star that shone over Bethlehem so long ago and pointed men in the right direction.

I think of Jesus as I put the lights on my tree, and many of the ornaments help to tell the shinning story.  I like to share a Jesse tree that tells not only His story, but also the stories of all those before and after Him that have passed all the stories on to us. 

I love remembering the way there was no place for Mary and Joseph, and the miracle of how God provided a place for them to stay, a type of "temporary dwelling" so very  similar to our earthly bodies as we think of our souls.  Also so very similar to the three-sided temporary dewellings (sukkahs) which we build at The Feast of Tabernacles.


I enjoy thinking of the humbleness of that little place and how it was changed in an instant when the child was born.  It became all lit up with the voices of the angels and the stars of heaven and suddenly became glorious with the precious gift of life that came down among so much humbleness and turned all the humble into the holy.   

I love thinking of how the shepherds heard the good news, and came to see the baby that would save the world.

I love remembering how the wise men followed the bright shinny star to Bethlehem. 
  
I love all of these stories because they have one common thread.  Every single story is about people searching for Jesus.  They kept seeking Him until they found Him, those shepherds and wise men and many, many others.  That is what I like to do most of all at Christmas time; seek Jesus with all of my heart until I find Him.  No amount of wrapping paper and tinsel can keep Him out of this day for me.  He is always there, just quietly waiting to teach us more of His story, always bringing light into the darkness, always making all things new.

I love that God made all of these things so perfect, so delightful, so right and so wonderful; with no contradictions and no complications, just a flood of pure genuine joy and love that arrives in perfect timing.

I cherish every Christmas thought about Jesus, and these thoughts bring me comfort as we move on through the year.  The stories stay in my heart way beyond Christmas Day.  Their light carries over into the ordinary days and makes them shine too.

I love Jesus! 

I love that we celebrate so much about Him at Christmas!

I love the story so beautiful that only God could have written it.  

His coming to earth is truly the greatest miracle of all, and the greatest gift ever given to mankind.