Pastor’s Letter
It’s Christmas time again!
As we rush to the store to buy another gift Christmas seems to blur into the busyness of the season, doesn’t it? It seems to happen every year, even when we vow that next year will be different. A pastor once told me something about Christmas that I will never forget. He said, "Christmas isn’t our birthday, it’s Jesus’", and those words still continue to echo in my head each year as Santa prepares his sleigh for deliveries to the Mellott house.
Let me step back in time for a minute before I address that pastor’s wise words and tell you about Christmas at the Mellott house when I was a child. We did things a little differently and opened Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. Now I was told that it was because Santa had so many toys to deliver to all the children of the world and that he had to deliver some early to ensure that everyone got their gifts by Christmas day, so to my benefit we were on the early route. Well I guess that could have been true in Santa’s world, but the fact was that Christmas day was a very busy day for our family as we would venture to McClure, Pennsylvania in the morning to visit with my mother’s family and then travel over an hour the other way to Mt. Union, to visit with my dad’s family. It was a busy schedule and before we knew it Christmas was done and I never got to enjoy it like others.
The Christmas season can be one of great excitement and anticipation, but are we really allowing enough time to reflect on it properly? Growing up I always realized what Christmas meant and my family did all they could to instill its Christian significance, but I still feel like I never had time to reflect on Christmas much, due to our family obligations. Sometimes I felt it was like trying to see Santa; no matter how many times my big brothers claimed to have seen him or how fast I would run down the stairs to get a glance of him, I would just miss him and he would be gone.
These things have made me think over the years as I try to provide a nice Christmas for my children by filling Santa’s sleigh with the right gifts and fulfilling my family obligations as well. But each year another Christmas passes and I feel like that small child that always just misses Santa, because I’m getting swept away in the secular mentality of the holiday and the obligation by family members that are expected to be fulfilled. It’s not that I don’t appreciate family, but what about Jesus? Isn’t this his birthday? Isn’t it because of him we celebrate Christmas anyway?
This year I probably have done something that may have made some of you upset when I joined together all four services for one 10:00 a.m. service at Runville on Christmas day. But by doing so this allows me and my family the opportunity to break free of a busy Christmas day schedule and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas together. For me it is time to sit back and say, enough with the hustle and bustle of the season and to begin reflecting on the reason for the season that we celebrate. Sure family and friends are special and gifts are meaningful, but when we allow the world to devour us, were does Jesus end up? Pushed to the side and maybe even forgotten, but when I look at life I realize that four services on Christmas day and running from one house to the next is too much. My prayer for each of you this Christmas is that you take the time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and help others understand it as well. Slow down and reflect; if you’re late for lunch at mom’s house, then you’re late! Slow down and enjoy the season; you don’t want it to be like my Santa experience and miss it. I say it every year, but in this busy world I don’t believe it can be stressed enough; SLOW DOWN and just enjoy Christmas the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Doug