December 15, 2008 12:06 p.m.

Last Monday morning, my 7 year-old Katy and I were trying to determine what the symbol was on the chocolate she was about to eat for breakfast from her “Hannah Montana 32 days of Chocolate - Christmas and New Year Countdown Calendar. (breathe) It was either a cross, or a sword, or a tulip, or a guitar, or a microphone. Katy ate it before we were able to draw out any deep Christmas sentiment.

As believers decorate their houses with Christmas decorations (especially those anatomically incorrect angels) let’s consider a couple of things, to more thoughtfully celebrate the incarnation.

Eph 5:10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
Eph 5:17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

These verses are moral in focus, but we see in the symbols and celebration of Passover, (Ex 12) the life and death, moral importance of attention to detail. God had proved with the blood on the doorframes that symbols matter and are meant to invoke questions.

Ex 12:26 Then your children will ask, ‘What does this ceremony mean?'
27 And you will reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. And though he struck the Egyptians, he spared our families.'”

Ex 13:8 “On the seventh day you must explain to your children, ‘I am celebrating what the LORD did for me when I left Egypt.’

Ex 13:14 “And in the future, your children will ask you, ‘What does all this mean?’ Then you will tell them, ‘With the power of his mighty hand, the LORD brought us out of Egypt, the place of our slavery.

The symbols and celebration of Passover, in fact, point us to Christ.

1Co 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, at an arbitrary time of year, with capricious and pagan symbols and rituals, with inaccurate portrayals of timelines etc., I can’t help but wonder if the freedom to make up our own celebration has been a bane or blessing.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if revived evangelicals really looked closely at our traditions and tried to be more accurate and thoughtful in our celebration. What if we just changed one thing each year, like putting Gabriel (Lu 1:29 Mary was greatly troubled at *his* words…) on top of the tree instead of a winged “Barbie”.

Perhaps in time we might even make our own Exodus from a date that has been all but swallowed up by consumerism and aim at something a little more scientifically verifiable like September. (?)

But before we get completely crazy, maybe one of us will come up with a good idea that catches on and begins to reform our Christian tradition just a little. So I’m challenging you to experiment. Read Exodus 12. Consider the importance of symbol and celebration. Think about the questions you want your children to ask and the answers you will give them and shape your Christmas accordingly.
I would be interested to know how you make out