TableTalk

[Circa 1965]

Different? Oh yes, to be sure it was different, but it was always a very joyous time! Since the Bolivian schools had summer vacation in December, January and February, we planned our Vacation Bible School to be held the two weeks prior to Christmas. The children’s memorized Bible verses and songs from VBS were used for the children’s program at church.

What excitement we all had in getting ready for Christmas at church! A small amount of money from the church offerings was used to purchase animal crackers and small wrapped candies when someone traveled to La Paz. Missionary women popped large amounts of popcorn, which had been grown on Coaba Farm. Then several members worked together to make small packets for the goodies, using sheets of “TIME” magazines which were folded into cone-shapes. These were filled with with two cups of popped corn, three or four animal crackers and a couple wrapped candies. They were stored in tubs near the altar until after the program was given that evening. Every man, woman and child happily received their packet of goodies as they left.

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[Circa 1965]

Vicensia Quispe’s little son, Alberto, now about six years old, was born without the ability to hear or talk. This meant he could not go to school. His father died shortly after he was born, so he had many “strikes” against him.

But he could smile! Often, during the mid 1960s, when I was doing visitation in the homes up in Chejje, I would see him in the trail and immediately his face would break out into a big warm smile as I stopped to pay attention to him and talk with him.

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I have recently learned of an unusual gift item from rural Minnesota advertised now over the Christmas holidays. Improbably, it is a candle that is said to smell like Jesus. You can set it on an end table in your living room or den and burn it when you are feeling devout. Its creators report that even if you re not religious, the scent gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. It is a blended scent, we are told, involving myrrh, aloe and cassia. They call it, simply, His Essence. (See the story here).

A candle that smells like Jesus?

The concept, certainly, is unusual enough. But what really drew my attention was an apologetic caveat offered by the candle s creators in their write-up for WCCO News. If the buying public is not religious at all, why, they should note that the candle produces just a subtle scent. [We] think it can be shared by all.

A candle that smells like Jesus is provocative enough. But then to presume that the scent would be subtle this adds insult to injury.

It makes marketing sense, I suppose. If you are marketing the scent of the Savior, it is best, probably, to focus on his subtle characteristics, his gentle side, his affinities for children and aloe and cassia. But St. Paul describes the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus in his letter to the Corinthians and let me tell you, there is nothing subtle about it (2 Corinthians 2:14ff.). It is the fragrance of death and of life. It is the fragrance of One who calls us to take up our cross and follow him. It is an aroma of a very special sort, involving sacrifice and mission, love and obedience, humble service and raptured visions of heaven. It is the aroma of the Lord Most High.

The Jesus candle is distributed by a small company in Minnesota. But the true aroma of our Lord Christ is carried by his followers not by scented candles, if you please, but by people like you and me. When you give and pray and go in the name of the Savior, you spread the aroma of Jesus.

We live in a world that is badly in need of it. Let us not be subtle.

Once again, it is Advent. In a swirl of happy, sometimes frantic preparations, we ready our homes and our families for Christmas. Boxes appear out of the attic. Gifts appear under the tree. Foods are prepared. In my house, on the Rosales side of the family, we prepare tamales. Among the Lindquists we make a kind of sausage and ready ourselves for lutefisk. And sometimes when our families do things together we might serve a tamal with a side of lutefisk on the same plate!

It is strange enough. But something far more unusual is at work at Christmas time, just beneath the surface of things. Something infinitely extraordinary. Something absolutely unique. God has become a human being. The universe itself can never be the same.

Have you noticed?

I picture, sometimes, the angels of God standing at the elbow of the Father Almighty as he elaborates his plan for the salvation of the world and piece-by-piece reveals it. They might have anticipated, I think, a starring role. Wouldn t it be natural to send them out in impressive legions to battle the enemy and recapture our wandering race? But the Father revealed a different sort of plan a plan so astounding that the angels themselves could not have foreseen it. I picture the angels leaning in close, watching carefully and listening eagerly. Things were afoot into which angels long to look, we are told (1 Peter 1:12). I can picture it.

What is astounding today is that we may breeze through the Christmas season, serve our lutefisk and tamales, etc., with nary a shudder of wonder at the utter miracle of it all. A shudder of wonder? The Incarnation of God should thrill us to the core, I think, if we understood the power and scope of the miracle. But we clear the table, remove the tree, put away the boxes and wait again for another round next year. Angels long to look into the wonder of Bethlehem. Do we?

We do, of course, at some basic level if we quiet our hearts for a moment and permit ourselves a bit of honest self-reflection. Most people do and all around the world. Human beings everywhere long to look into God s provision for hope and wholeness. They long to look into God s remedy for death and sin. The world itself is longing. That is why we pray, and give and sometimes go.

Let s point the world to Jesus!

I am thinking of introducing a new tradition in our home: to hang a little stone on our Christmas tree. It would help us to commemorate a Christmas story often overlooked the story of Nebuchadnezzar s monster, a towering thing of metal and clay, and the little stone that crushed it into a million pieces (Daniel 2:1ff.).

Do you remember the story? In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a great image mighty and of exceeding brightness, and its appearance was frightening (2:31ff.). The image had a gold head. It had torso and arms of silver. It sported a belly and thighs of bronze. It had iron legs, and clay mingled with iron for feet.

And it was overcome by a stone cut out by no human hand. I picture a smallish stone, perhaps a simple square of granite. Nebuchadnezzar dreams that the stone strikes the image on its feet. And when it does, the entire ugly thing comes tumbling down. The monster became like the chaff; but the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (2:34-35).

Nebuchadnezzar s dream, I think, is really a Christmas vision. It is true: there are no angels or tinsel or garlands here. Yet commentators explain that the stone represents the advent of Jesus, while the monster symbolizes the proud kingdoms, rulers and institu-tions of the world (2:36ff.). The stone touches the kingdoms of the world at their root. It brings human pride and vanity to nothing. And it brings into being a New Kingdom, small at first, that grows to fill the entire earth.

This is just the way that Christmas works. The simple, smallish stone the advent of Jesus may appear insignificant by the world s standards. Yet it changes everything. The King has come! The Advent has occurred! We may shout with Daniel: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed .It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever (2:44).

A wonderful Advent and Christmas season to you and yours! Maybe you will want to hang a stone on your Christmas tree, too.