Pastor's Note

THE GREAT IN-BETWEEN
November 25th, 2007

When I was young, my family would always gather at Thanksgiving time. After the dinner, we would have a special drawing for our annual Christmas gift exchange. This was a fun way for each person to have one special person to buy for. Being a big family, we found this a reasonable way to include everyone in gift-giving without going broke.
The weeks that followed were a time of planning and searching for ‘just the right gift.’ Sometimes that was easy. Other times it was extremely hard.
Somewhere along the way, I discovered that this time of planning and searching was not just for a special gift, but also for a way of bringing the ‘Christmas spirit’ into my life and into the lives of others. Like most people, I wanted Christmas to be a positive experience on a special day. What was it, however, that would allow that to happen?
Fortunately, the church has a season of Advent to help us focus on what is happening at Christmas. Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas, and will begin next Sunday with the lighting of the Advent wreath. The Scripture readings, the liturgical decorations, and the songs are all targeted on preparing for the presence of the Lord.
At the very same time, our society fills us with ads for gifts, ways to decorate our houses, and certain types of expectations. Those are not bad things. But we have to consciously and, with self-discipline, decide how to use this time, this great in-between time from Thanksgiving to Christmas.