Christmas and the Church

I remember the little plastic church. It wasn't anything fancy, that's for sure, but of all the Christmas traditions, of all the seasonal trimmings, it is that little plastic church I remember most. Mom told me once that it had been a gift from a friend on Mom and Dad's first Christmas together. It had a wind-up music box that played "Silent Night," and a light bulb inside that made it softly glow. The windows had colorful little plastic inserts that gave the illusion of stained glass. At some time, long before I was born, I'm sure, the cross had been broken off the steeple of the church and had been glued back on, slightly askew. The repair was obviously the work of one of my older siblings. The plastic was now yellowed after years of existence, and some of the "stained glass windows" were a little warped from the heat of the light bulb inside. But despite the blemishes, I loved that church. Each year in early December, when it was time to unpack the dusty boxes with the Christmas decorations, I would look for the little plastic church first, and find a place of distinction for it in our home.

Maybe its because of that little plastic church that I feel so strongly about the place of the church in our Christmas celebrations. In the midst of this hustle and bustle world, with Christmas sales and parents scurrying to buy this year's over-hyped toy, where fashions and fads change faster than a baby's diaper, it's nice to know that there is one place where the story of Christ's nativity is still told as it has been for centuries, where "Silent Night" is sung with reverence, where the soft light of candles is accented by the glowing of real stained glass windows, and where the meaning of God's incarnation on earth is not drowned out by the secularism of a larger society.

Each year now, when I begin to open the dusty boxes of my life marked "Christmas," I silently promise myself that I will find a place of distinction in my home and heart for the church this year.

Read: Nehemiah 10:39

Prayer: O God, may my heart this Christmas season be directed toward you. May my idle hours be spent remembering the Christ. May my offerings go to building your kingdom. May my songs be sung in praise of your love come down at Christmas. Amen.

-- Peter Perry