Richness For All People

ALL

PEOPLE

Daniel A. Brown, Ph.D.

The rich colors surrounding us this morning leave no doubt that Christmas is coming. I never had one of those big, 64-color crayon boxes, so I’m never very good at differentiating Forest Green from the other varieties; to me, red is red…until it becomes maroon (one of my high school’s colors). But I can tell rich colors, deep tones, from faded ones. This year we’ve intentionally “decked the halls” of our sanctuary and campus with velvety greens, deep hues and splashes of shiny brightness—all to remind ourselves of the depth and richness of what God has given to us: sending His Son, Jesus, into our impoverished world. Christmas decorations in the midst of a living room, or even adorning city buildings, are an unmistakable declaration of breath-taking splendor added to ordinary life. They are a physical representation of the “extra” God wants for His children. Once a year it is a good reminder to decorate everything with the special theme of Christmas; it’s like tying a string around our finger so we won’t forget what got added to our world 2,000 years ago. I don’t even mind when stores get started earlier and earlier each year with their decorations. Everything looks different and better in the twinkle of tree lights, with a garnish of pine bough, or wrapped in bright ribbon. It’s why the rooms and tables seem so empty after the decorations are taken down. More than we realize each year, we come to view the extra beauty and colors as what’s normal. Even the scurry and extra work getting ready for Christmas makes life as usual, in the post-Christmas days, seem drab and empty by comparison. And that’s the point of all the todo—stringing the lights; wrapping the gifts; setting out the nutcracker figurine, the special candy dish and the cranberry wreath—celebrating how different life is when “the Lord is come.” The repeated rituals of decorating/setting up/singing songs can become dead traditions instead of living reminders. It’s easy to get worn out by the physical efforts of making this time of year different from all the rest. Sometimes we hardly want to bother with it all—or at least pay someone to do the decorating for us. May I offer another way to think about it? Perhaps it is more like these things wear us in, like boys (of all ages) work in their baseball hat. You might be pleasantly surprised this Christmas if you ask the Lord to shape your heart while you are redecorating your home. My wife believes that each tree ornament should be unique (not parts of twelve-bulb sets). Though I did not catch on to the Christmas logic of that view early in our marriage, I have since come to understand it better. We adorn the tree with eye-catchers—shapes, colors and textures— that stand out from the green backdrop of the branches. From a distance, or if you look at the whole tree at once, dozens of identical bulbs are fine. They add an entire color scheme to the decoration. But up close, after the marvel of the whole tree, it isn’t very interesting; seen one bulb, seen them all. Since God made the cosmos (Greek word for arrangement), He could easily have made all people alike. But He chooses to adorn the world with individuals like each of us. He is unimaginably wealthy, so He needn’t find bargain decorations at MacFrugal’s. What gives Him pleasure? What delights His eyes? You and I. We catch His eye. He enjoys us and pauses long over us just to enjoy the colors, the textures, the garnishes of our soul. From the beginning, and all the way till now, He has said about how He has decorated the universe, “This is good, this is very good.”

The Coastlands, Aptos Foursquare Church