Christmas for the Next Generation

Growing up, I absolutely loved Christmas!  Everything about it. I was so bedazzled with the anticipation of it that I could hardly stand it.

I remember Septembers seemed to go by so slowly while I spent the entire month wishing October would hurry up and get here so I could start playing Christmas music! And then I would Christmas for three months with our old console stereo and vinyl Christmas albums.

I also had a little 45 record player that I played Alvin and the Chipmunks on.  And Oh, the sweet aromas that would drift through the house from the wonderful treats and feasts mama would create in the kitchen. The formal dining room table would inevitably be covered with tins full of homemade peanut butter balls, cheese straws, peppermint bark, fudge, and Christmas cookies. If I was just half the homemaker mama was I would be Martha Stewart’s competitor! One year she made herself, my sister and me matching green velvet dresses to wear to church together on the Sunday before Christmas.  She was a wonderful seamstress. Such sweet memories.  But the Sunday before Christmas was bitter sweet because it only meant that Christmas was almost over.  December 26th wasn’t so much of a let down because I still had my birthday to look forward to the very next day, but after the 27th I had an entire year looming ahead of me until the next Christmas! Unbearable!

Amidst these and many more fun and fascinating wonders of Christmas I enjoyed,  we attended our church wide Christmas party complete with all my little friends, music, Santa Clause, and paper sacks that served as stockings full of nuts, oranges, candy and a small gift.  But somewhere in the middle of it all everyone was gathered together for Christmas carols and the reading of the Christmas story in Luke 2.  Our small southern baptist church also presented an annual Christmas play. It was simple but well attended.  Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds, ….a complete live manger scene at the front of the sanctuary being portrayed and acted out for the rest of us who sought to keep the Christ child at the forefront of our minds.

I’m glad my church made the true meaning of Christmas a priority and that my parents made it a priority to take us. It was important, and it made a difference.

Have you ever stopped to consider what Christmas would be to us today without the faithful ones, for hundreds of years, who came before us and kept the true meaning of Christmas alive? It doesn’t take much to imagine what it would be like.  Without a doubt, the star, the shepherds, the angels, Mary, Joseph, and the holy infant in the manger would be long forgotten. That’s a scary thought!  Which brings me to another question that I was forced to look at with a fresh perspective upon the arrival of our first grandchild two years ago.  What am I doing to insure that the generation after me will know?  And not just know it but be in love with it enough to live it and pass it on?

If passion for the message of Jesus Christ does not accompany the formalities of our Christmas celebrations, they will evolve into trite suggestions in the next generation, faint memories in the generation to follow, and ultimately forgotten.

So with these thoughts in mind God blessed me in a unique way.  It’s at times like these that I realize more than ever God’s creativity and His kindness towards us. I was wide awake one very late December night and, honestly not even trying to go to sleep because I was too excited about Christmas. Yep, this grandma had sugar plums dancing in her head!  Well, not exactly, but rather consumed by the thought that our typical Christmas celebration was about to be graced by the presence of our first grandchild, Olivia Sinclair Bence, the first of the next generation in our family (her little sister, Ava Grace, was born June of this year).

I knew that if I was going to join the ranks of faithful followers before me I would have to be sure that in the midst of all the games, gifts, and gab Olivia and all her siblings and cousins would have to leave Minnie and Papa’s house every Christmas having encountered the greatest story ever told with all the passion and praise it deserves.

So, about that unique way God chose to bless me? Yeah, it was quite unique, because I had never written a poem before and on that late December night rhyming phrases about the life of Christ started popping in my head and jerked me right out of bed!  I have never had anything flow from my heart quite like it did that night. It is an experience I will never forget. Simple enough for a preschooler to understand, perhaps the words of this poem will not be as profound for you as  they are for me, but maybe you will find some value in using it during your Christmas family gatherings and help keep Christ in Christmas for the next generation.

From my heart and home to yours, Merry Christmas!
                                                                 ~ Sandra Sellers Riordan

This is Christmas

In the still, empty darkness the world began
When God created,
Yes, He created
Sky, earth, beast and man.

At the sound of His voice
God gave light to the darkness,
Breath to the breathless,
And He also gave man a choice.

God was pleased with all He made,
Until one day, A very sad day,
He heard the man say,
I sinned, I sinned,…. I sinned.

Black, ugly, dirty sin,
Messed up God’s  beautiful world,
But God had a plan,
His love would span
The great gulf between God and man,
That had been made by sin.

Sin had to be punished
By the shedding of blood,
So God, in His great love,
Became a man.

God’s love had a name, and it sounds like this:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
God’s only Son, would be the one
To make man right again.

And so……..it happened!!

Beautiful, silent, dark of night,
A star, a star, a star so bright,
Angels, shepherds, manger, sheep,
The lamb of God was born so sweet.
Jesus is His name.

Mary, Joseph, wise men see,
The baby Jesus, born a King!
He came, He came, He came you see,
To pay for man’s sins, that’s you and me!

He grew, He walked upon this earth,
A sinless life from the day of His birth.
The perfect, spotless Lamb of God!
How can I declare His worth?!!

So when Jesus became a man,
God worked His great plan,
Yes, God worked His perfect plan,
To make man right again.

And so…….it happened.

The whip, the cross, the nails, the thorns,
The sins of the world laid on the Lord.
Black, ugly, dirty sin,
He took it all for sinful man!

He died, He died, for you and me!
My savior hung upon that tree!
The sin was so great, God turned His head,…….
….…”It is finished”, Jesus said.

But wait, my friend,
There’s more to the story!
It’s the reason I live,
And give Him glory!

So here’s the gospel,
Shout it out!!
GOD IS NOT DEAD!
HE’S ALIVE! no doubt!

He conquered sin, death, and the grave,
Forevermore my life to save!
His precious blood covered ALL my sin!
I’M ALIVE, ALIVE, ALIVE IN HIM!

So this, my dear children,
Is the Christmas story:

God sent His Son,
To shed His blood,
For the sins of the world,
Out of His great love!!
Oh come, let us adore Him!
Oh come, let us adore Him!
Oh come, let us adore Him!
Jesus Christ our Lord!

Please share with friends on social media.  Thanks so much! =)