WHERE HAVE ALL THE ANGELS GONE?

This is not a rant. It is a reality and I am not certain if I wished it were not, or not. The reality is that Christmas has become both a holy day and a holiday, separate and not always equal. In fact, in all truth, no rant intended, the holiday seriously trumps the holy day. It is not even close. The holiday lasts, these days anyway, over a month. The holy day lasts hardly a day even if or when it is celebrated.

A further truth is that the vast majority of people who celebrate the holiday do not celebrate the holy day. For them the holy day, Christmas Day,  is all about the holiday and nothing more. What is more, they barely even realize or recognize the fact that the holiday was once dependent on the holy day and is the result of the holy day. And they do not care.

Even the merchants of the holiday have forgotten this fact. This became even clearer to me while Arlena and I did some holiday shopping. We have a custom of giving our daughters a holiday gift, an inexpensive gift as a reminder of both the holiday and the holy day. One of our daughters has been receiving an angel. Try as we might, nowhere in the store after store we entered looking for an angel gift did we find any angels. I wondered, “Where have all the angels gone?” There were lots of snow men, Santas in abundance, Christmas elves everywhere, but there were no angels let alone Baby Jesus’s.

A further truth is that many of those who realize, who fully understand that the holy day is the reason for the holiday, that, as is often said, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” themselves do not celebrate the holy day. Christmas has, even for them, become solely a holiday. Not only have all the angels gone away, so has the celebration of the birth of Jesus taken a holiday, if you will.

Now I fully understand and even give thanks for the fact that the spirit of the holy day is very much a part of the spirit of the holiday. That spirit can be found in most of those who line up hours ahead on Black Friday to grab the Door-buster Specials that are being offered to lure them into the stores to buy and buy and buy. We seem to be kinder and more courteous this holiday season even as we are often more frazzled than ever trying to get ready to celebrate the holiday. The spirit and meaning of the holy day are alive amid the holiday frenzy.

This is good, but is it enough? Should we not take some time, and it really is not that much time – an hour or so – to truly celebrate the holy day, the way it should be celebrated, with worship? This is not meant to be a guilt trip so much as it is a reminder that giving thanks to God for the many blessings that we have all received, undeserved blessing at that, thanks for being able to celebrate the holiday in the way we do, should be a no-brainer. Should be.

The holy day will be here soon. Will we be among those who give no thought of it and simply celebrate the holiday or will we be those who celebrate it with thanks, thanks for the both the holy day and the holiday?