Some of us have just celebrated Thanksgiving with feasting, and it's that time of the year once again when all of us will soon come together to enjoy Christmas feasting as well, yet not everyone in the world has this same privilege. While some may complain about the preparation, the cooking and the baking, many like me who knows next to nothing about cooking and baking, often just sit around in expectancy to a feast in celebration of our Lord's birthday.
The Bible mentioned a great deal about feasting, but very little about cooking, except maybe for what is implied of Martha's distraction with her preparation when the Lord visited her home, and of another occasion when she prepared a supper for the Lord (Luke 10:38-42; John 12:2). In the Old Testament, the Bible mentioned many feasts, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of the Harvest, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), and Feast of the Passover. Some of these feasts are still being celebrated today by Jews and by Christians in various parts of the world.
The Feast of Booths, for example, is being observed by some 50,000 Christians, according to an article at the web site of Wikipedia. This Feast, in some places in the world, is even declared as a Christian holiday, much like the Lord's birthday. The Book of Zechariah mentioned about this Feast as part of a prophecy of our Lord's return (Zechariah 14). Biblical feasts, such as this, are usually observed in honor of God to remember what He has done for His people. Likewise, when we celebrate Christmas with feasting, we must also remember the reason for our celebration -- the birth of Christ, born to die for our sins and to set us free from spiritual death.
While it is absolutely true that all of us who participate in the feasting appreciate and are grateful to the ones who prepare the Christmas feast out of love, in suffering and hardship to cook and to bake, we must above all things, always remember the purpose of our celebration. Christmas is indeed an occasion deserving of a great celebration with feasting, cooking, and baking, but we, who are the ones who prepare the food, and the ones who feast on the food, must always do it out of love and appreciation, not only to one another, but also to the Lord, Who is the reason we are celebrating the occasion. Let us all, therefore, when we eat of the food, the turkey and ginger bread, the delights of the stomach and appetites, remember that it is because of Jesus we are cooking and feasting on this joyous occasion.
Teach us, O Lord, as we celebrate Your birthday with joy and feasting, to remember You, the reason for our celebration, to appreciate, love, and cherish the ones who work so hard to prepare the feast, to cook and to bake, in love and charity, so that we may feast with joy and gaiety, with appreciation and without gluttony.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Beyond Christmas Cards
According to various sources1 of information from the Internet, the custom of sending Christmas cards began in Britain around 1840 when the 'Uniform Penny Post' was first introduced to public postal deliveries, helped by the new railway system which enabled the public postal service in the 19th century. The Uniform Penny Post was a postal system that used a uniform rate of one penny to deliver normal letters of weight not exceeding half an ounce for any local post. This was how the prepaid postage stamp came to be established, which till this day is still being used by many postal systems around the world.
Following the introduction of the Penny Post postal system, Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman and prominent innovator of the 1800s who was also the person who modernized the British postal system, commissioned London respected illustrator and artist John Calcott Horsley in the summer of 1843 to design an impressive card for that year's Christmas, one that he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a merry Christmas. The word 'merry' was used in those days as a spiritual word for 'blessed' as in ‘merry old England’ and that was how the first Christmas card was born.
Thirty years later, the idea of Christmas cards caught on with the Americans when Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany, began publishing the cards in 1875 and earned the title 'father of the American Christmas card.' Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually just within the United States, and Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year.
Long before the idea of a Christmas card was even conceived, people were already exchanging handwritten holiday greetings, first in person, then via post, much like the way the Apostle Paul sent his greetings in his epistles (Philippians 4:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). Paul wrote the greetings with his own hand as a distinguishing mark in his letters, and such greetings had been a source of encouragement to many in building ties and relationships beyond the boundaries of different churches, cultures and geographical separators, in and off festive seasons. Given such richness of blessings deriving from written words of greetings, we should therefore continue with this tradition and not neglect reaching out to people through this mode of communication, whether it be by snail mail greeting cards or online e-cards, especially to the ones whom we may not be able to meet up due to distance constraints, or who may be faraway, overseas, or in another town.
This Christmas, therefore, let us rethink how we should rekindle our interest in sending out Christmas cards to greet and bless people. Do we know of a missionary who needs encouragement, or someone who needs cheering up, or a friend who needs the Lord? Remember, we can do our part in making this a special Christmas for them, and we can touch some hearts by simply adding a few words of our own to spice up the card with sincerity and truth to show we care. May God bless the sender and recipient of Christmas cards!
Dear Lord, help us in our haste not to forget the people You love, the missionaries, the pre-believers, our friends, colleagues and relatives. Teach us Lord to pen down meaningfully words of encouragement and care in adding these words to our Christmas cards. Do not let us take for granted what we can do through greeting cards such as these, in blessing each and everyone who receives the card, to let them know the special Someone who cares enough to come from heaven to earth to save us all.
1 SOON Online Magazine; The Great Idea Finder; Wikipedia (Accessed on November 22, 2008).
Following the introduction of the Penny Post postal system, Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman and prominent innovator of the 1800s who was also the person who modernized the British postal system, commissioned London respected illustrator and artist John Calcott Horsley in the summer of 1843 to design an impressive card for that year's Christmas, one that he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a merry Christmas. The word 'merry' was used in those days as a spiritual word for 'blessed' as in ‘merry old England’ and that was how the first Christmas card was born.
Thirty years later, the idea of Christmas cards caught on with the Americans when Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany, began publishing the cards in 1875 and earned the title 'father of the American Christmas card.' Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually just within the United States, and Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year.
Long before the idea of a Christmas card was even conceived, people were already exchanging handwritten holiday greetings, first in person, then via post, much like the way the Apostle Paul sent his greetings in his epistles (Philippians 4:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). Paul wrote the greetings with his own hand as a distinguishing mark in his letters, and such greetings had been a source of encouragement to many in building ties and relationships beyond the boundaries of different churches, cultures and geographical separators, in and off festive seasons. Given such richness of blessings deriving from written words of greetings, we should therefore continue with this tradition and not neglect reaching out to people through this mode of communication, whether it be by snail mail greeting cards or online e-cards, especially to the ones whom we may not be able to meet up due to distance constraints, or who may be faraway, overseas, or in another town.
This Christmas, therefore, let us rethink how we should rekindle our interest in sending out Christmas cards to greet and bless people. Do we know of a missionary who needs encouragement, or someone who needs cheering up, or a friend who needs the Lord? Remember, we can do our part in making this a special Christmas for them, and we can touch some hearts by simply adding a few words of our own to spice up the card with sincerity and truth to show we care. May God bless the sender and recipient of Christmas cards!
Dear Lord, help us in our haste not to forget the people You love, the missionaries, the pre-believers, our friends, colleagues and relatives. Teach us Lord to pen down meaningfully words of encouragement and care in adding these words to our Christmas cards. Do not let us take for granted what we can do through greeting cards such as these, in blessing each and everyone who receives the card, to let them know the special Someone who cares enough to come from heaven to earth to save us all.
1 SOON Online Magazine; The Great Idea Finder; Wikipedia (Accessed on November 22, 2008).
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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