{"id":3707,"date":"2017-12-24T18:45:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T02:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=3707"},"modified":"2017-12-28T20:33:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T04:33:26","slug":"what-is-christmas-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2017\/what-is-christmas-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Christmas to Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote style=\"border:none; font-size:125%\"><p>Twas the night before Christmas<br \/>\nWhen all through the church<br \/>\nThere was no tree a shinin&#8217;<br \/>\nNot a willow, not a fir, not a birch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know the rest of the poem, but let me tell you more of what Christmas means to me&#8230; <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Times together as families &#8212; special times<\/li>\n<li>Bonus times together as church and school<\/li>\n<li>Letters and pictures and cards<\/li>\n<li>Struggling and stressing to know what to give to others<\/li>\n<li>Stressing about juggling schedules and plans and revisions<\/li>\n<li>Overkill of parties and programs, of events and activities<\/li>\n<li>Sale upon sale after sale &#8212; and some extra-low prices on some things you actually need<\/li>\n<li>Indulgence of the flesh &#8212; overindulgence, really<\/li>\n<li>Eat, drink, and be merry<\/li>\n<li>Performances and carolers<\/li>\n<li>Pretty lights and manger scenes<\/li>\n<li>Christmas trees, Salvation Army bell-ringers, and some fat chimney sweep with sandy claws (or something)<\/li>\n<li>A special season for the party animal<\/li>\n<li>Giving mostly to those who can give in return<\/li>\n<li>Buying what you can&#8217;t afford for those who might not need or appreciate what you gave them anyway<\/li>\n<li>Generosity<\/li>\n<li>Expectations<\/li>\n<li>Comparing &#8212; what I got vs what you got, what I gave vs what you gave<\/li>\n<li>The poor feeling (<em>what? intimidated, diminished, eclipsed, joyful?<\/em>) at the (<em>what? generosity, excess, happiness, satisfaction?<\/em>) of the rich<\/li>\n<li>Much money spent on entertainment and on supporting entertainers<\/li>\n<li>Something for which I doubt the early church had an equivalent<\/li>\n<li>A season of too much generous greed &#8212; Season&#8217;s Greedings<\/li>\n<li>Merry Christmas!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For me, there&#8217;s Christmas and there&#8217;s Christ&#8217;s birth.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They&#8217;ve come to mean different things to me.<\/li>\n<li>So let me tell you some of what Christ&#8217;s birth means to me<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1.jpg\" alt=\"even unto Bethlehem\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/even-unto-bethlehem-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nativity<\/strong> &#8212; the <em>Navidad<\/em> part of &#8220;Feliz Navidad&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Another step in the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3:15, the promise of a coming One who would bruise the head of the Serpent<\/li>\n<li>Another part of God&#8217;s best plan for our redemption<\/li>\n<li>The sacrifices of a mother and her husband&#8230;and the Child<\/li>\n<li>The arrival at last of the Lowly Servant and the powerful Redeemer<\/li>\n<li>Peace on earth; goodwill to men<\/li>\n<li>A phase in the humiliation of God<\/li>\n<li>The greatest becoming one of the least<\/li>\n<li>A certain setting aside what was His &#8212; glory, equality with the Father, power, heaven<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace&#8221; (Isaiah 9:6)<\/li>\n<li>And yet &#8220;His own received Him not&#8221; (John 1:11)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The glory as of the only begotten of the Father&#8221; (John 1:14)<\/li>\n<li>When the Child came, &#8220;grace and truth came&#8221; (John 1:17)<\/li>\n<li>The Word, the Almighty, the I AM, Jehovah &#8212; made flesh<\/li>\n<li>The Creator in a baby&#8217;s body all His own<\/li>\n<li>Emmanuel &#8212; God with us<\/li>\n<li>\u00adFeliz Navidad!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I probably won&#8217;t get all that said tonight. I doubt five minutes is enough time. We&#8217;ll see.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My notes for a five-minute segment at the Hopewell Mennonite Church Christmas Program<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What Is Christmas to Me? -- my notes for a #Christmas program presentation","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[730,857,186,521],"class_list":["post-3707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-this-day","tag-christmas","tag-holidays","tag-hope","tag-peace"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-XN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}