FRONT COVER of the ISSUE

"FROM the PASTOR'S PEN" COLUMN

Easter rabbits. Easter parades. Easter bonnets and dresses and shoes. Chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps, Cadbury eggs … belly aches. Where, exactly, is Jesus to be found in the midst of all this frippery? Our whole culture conspires to obscure just what this holiday is all about.

Jesus won't be visible at the shopping malls this year, no—though chances are good that you'll be able to find an eight-foot-tall white rabbit lurking about. Even our schools (which used to observe Easter Vacation) now celebrate something much less holy, something much more debased: Spring Break. Seems like even the use of the word "Easter" is becoming increasingly forbidden, as if the very mention of the word could stir up some half-forgotten memory of something wonderful and holy and mystical, something touched with some kind of otherworldly magic.

Just what is it that our culture is trying to blot out? What is it that the enemy of our souls wishes that we would just forget?

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March 2007:

Sometimes in my darker moments, I'm afraid that I'm just pretending to be a Christian. That the demands of holiness are simply too much for me. That I will never attain to the life of perfect purity demanded by a righteous God.

And of course it's true.

When Jesus says in scripture, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30), I am stopped dead in my tracks, flabbergasted at the enormity of that command. How on earth could I do that? Me, the most selfish person I know?

And if that weren't enough, he goes on to say in the next breath, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." What? I scarcely can even stand some of my neighbors. He doesn't mean that foul-mouthed blasphemer who sits two desks down from me at the office … does He? Does He want me to love him the same way I love me?

He does … and I don't.

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I thought I was going to write some words this month about the difference between love and romance, especially directed toward the young girls of our congregation. I wanted to highlight the glories of true love—nobility, sacrifice, preference of one's partner—and show the superficiality of romance (that which our culture calls being "in love") for what it is: something shallow if fun, and something insubstantial even though exciting.

But as I start this piece, I find myself sitting beside my wife's hospital bed, and my concerns are for something more personal to me. The doctor has already been in this evening, and it looks like she's going to be all right, but I spent several anxious moments in prayer the last couple of days, I'll tell you honestly.

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Well, here we are again-about to begin lap three of our journey together. When you read this, we will have completed two years together, the Cameron Mills church, the Rathbone church, and me. Two years of growing in friendship, in learning, in forgiving, in loving, and most of all-I pray-two years of growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus.

New Year's is a time for many things; for looking back, for looking forward, for making promises that we really do intend to keep. Really. We do.

Oh, well.

As I look back on my past year, I remember some personal successes of a kind. My first two novels and my first two short stories were published. That was kind of big, for me. I took some college courses and got good grades. That was okay. I didn't lose my job, and that was just fine. But bigger than all of those things was the blossoming of relationships, in the church, with my wife, with my friends. And especially with God. Those are the treasures I carry with me into 2007.

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The "Christmas Spirit": it's something we all long for. It's something we think we recall from our childhoods, something nostalgic and heartwarming and full of kind and gentle wishes for our families and our fellow man.

"Peace on earth, goodwill toward men," the angels sang over the birth of the Christ. And goodwill toward men is what we try to make our hearts feel at this season-what nearly everybody tries to feel during this holiday season, saint and sinner alike.

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love," wrote nineteenth-century scholar Hamilton Wright Mabie. Amen, I say-Amen! But is the whole world truly in a conspiracy of love ... true love? Or have they merely suspended their hostilities for a temporary time of truce, just long enough to give and receive gifts?

"What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace." So wrote the otherwise unknown Agnes M. Pharo.

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I'm really looking forward to this holiday season. Something seems inexpressibly sweet to me, something about Christmas lights and Christmas songs, and sweaters and hot chocolate, and sitting in the midst of my family and just watching them, maybe not saying anything at all.

Maybe I feel like that's a little bit like what Heaven will be. I don't know.

But there's something about the fleeting wonders of the Christmas season that captivate us all, if we can just put a halt to all of our busyness for a moment and see.

Snowflakes on bare branches. Apple-cheeked children. Boxes wrapped in ribbons. Trees crowned with angels. People tramping through our neighborhood for no better reason than they want to sing.

What is it about this wonderful season that changes our bustling America into an enchanted fairyland, even if just for a moment?

For the Christian, it's vital that we remember ... that it's Jesus.

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