11/29/23

Don’t wait too late to play Twister. 

When I was a kid, the people in theTwister commercials looked like they were having a blast! But for some reason my folks never bought me the game. It was probably because there were no kids my age in our neighborhood to play it with me, and my parents thought they were too old to twist.  50 years later, I sympathize. 

Imagine my delight when my great niece pulled Twister out last Friday! Finally, after all those years, I got to give it a try:
 

It wasn’t long before my brother said, “Remember how flexible you used to be?” The look I gave him said, "I’m going to just shovel that on top of all the other ‘Well, when we reach a certain age’ stuff I’ve heard from my doctors this year.”

Don’t wait too late to play Twister. Carpe diem. Seize the day. “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” All that other stuff we tell young people. 

This year has had its challenges (as they pile up, they tend to do that!), so I’ll be content to let 2023 go and move on to 2024 with all its new possibilities. 

Thankfully, as a Christian, I don’t have to wait for January 1st! For Christians, our calendar begins this Sunday – December 3,  the first Sunday of Advent. 

What? You didn’t know we have our own calendar? 

We do! And the reason for that is the way God wants us to prioritize our time. The Christian Calendar follows the example of the Jewish Calendar. When God delivered Israel from Egypt, he told them to celebrate that deliverance every year in the festival of Passover. As time went on, all of Israel’s calendar was structured around celebrations remembering God’s acts of Salvation. Why? So the people wouldn’t forget what God did for them – or as I often pray, they wouldn’t forget “who they are and Whose they are.” 

Every year the people would remember what God did for them. For the Jews, remembering was more than simply calling something to mind. To remember something was to bring the past into the present, so that gathering with your family to eat unleavened bread and eat roasted lamb was to actually participate in the first Passover with their ancestors. 

While the pagan calendars were built around harvest festivals and fertility festivals, the  Jewish calendar was built around the festivals of Passover, Pentecost, Booths and later Hanukkah, all celebrating God’s saving acts.

The same is true for the Christian calendar. 

We begin the year with Advent, the season that remembers the first coming of Jesus while anticipating Jesus’ second coming. Beginning December 25, we have the season of Christmas that lasts 12 days (no, the 12 days of Christmas don’t lead up to Christmas, no matter what Hallmark or Walmart says). The 12 days of Christmas end with January 6, Epiphany. And the rest of the year revolves, not around Presidents Day or July 4th (which are fine celebrations, don’t get me wrong), but Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. 

The rhythms of the year reflect the saving events in the story of God’s people, and living our lives by those rhythms shape us into God’s people because they constantly remind us of who we are and Whose we are. 

Another way we shape our lives is through spending time with God on a daily basis. The more you spend time with someone, the more you become like them, and that is certainly true of God! 

As we wind up this year, we’re also winding up our current reading plan! If you’ve kept up with it, in 2023 you’ve read the book of Psalms twice, as well as reading Luke, Acts, and the letters of Paul. Starting December 3, I’ve put together a reading plan based on the “Promises of Advent.” It begins with the problem of sin (Genesis 2), then we read the great promises of deliverance scattered throughout the Old Testament, and in the week leading up to Christmas, we read how the promises were fulfilled in Jesus. 

I think that reading these great passages of scripture will enhance your celebration of Christmas this year. A copy of the reading is attached to this newsletter or you may pick up hard copies at church.

I encourage you to read these passages with your family, too. You’re never too young to be introduced to the great promises of God’s Word! 

But unlike me and Twister, it’s never too late to start!