Daily Devotional

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Ghost of Christmas present showed Scrooge the needs that people had around him.

THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS.

Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to him through Jacob Marley’s intervention. But finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside with his own hands; and lying down again, established a sharp look-out all round the bed. For he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous…

In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge has the unique opportunity to revisit his past, see the present through other eyes, and view the future. These experiences allowed him to rethink his present status and be renewed into a warm, loving and kind human being. While in real life we cannot preview what our future holds, we can live in trust and hope that God is in control of what is to come. As we recall both the good and the bad of our past, we can hopefully use those experiences to shape who we are in the here and now. The hymn writer Milburn Price penned these words that eloquently describe the past, present, and future:

There are many ways we prepare for the coming of Christ. In this season of preparation known as Advent, some people are doing just what you are doing now, taking time each day to read an Advent devotional. Some of you just enjoy sitting quietly while you take in the lights on your Christmas tree and meditate on the meaning of this season. It is such a busy time of year and yet still so important to find time to focus on the coming of the Christ child.

One way that lifts my spirits is to do small acts of kindness for those we know or especially for a stranger. Christ came so we might more fully know what it is to love our neighbors. Acts of kindness remind us of that love that was born in Bethlehem. In the past, I have done things that maybe didn’t take a lot of time, but hopefully made a small difference in someone’s life…

My childhood Christmas tree was always a wondrous part of Advent for me. I found joy and comfort in that our tree looked the same every year. We adorned our green tree with white lights, white doves, red satin ornaments and beautifully beaded white crosses. My Mom lovingly hand-stitched each cross and there were over twenty different types of crosses on our tree. She knew the story of each cross and would share the history with us as we decorated it. This special ritual helped prepare my heart for the gift of the Christ Child every year.

Several years after Bob and I were married, Mom told us that she was very excited about the Christmas gift they were giving us that year. Now, she was a stickler for holding out until Christmas, but she said this year we would get our gift early. We had no idea what to expect!

In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens described the character, Ebeneezer Scrooge, this way:

“The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him.”

Ebeneezer Scrooge was cold from within. We don’t know for certain why he was characterized this way, although Dickens suggested that he had a difficult childhood, and was scorned by the woman he loved. Both are certainly things that could make a person seem cold.

We’ve all likely known a real-life Scrooge…

Working at St. Luke’s has been a blessing to my family. One of the things I remember from when I started in 2009 was that I was responsible for filming and editing a Christmas movie where we highlighted the ministries of the church that year. This movie would be shown at the All-Church Christmas Party early in December.

Over the last 13 years, we have done several spoofs of various movie themes; a James Bond movie, Back to the Future, TheSanta Clause, and many more. We have had fun creating these movies that share the message of the ministries that has taken place each year. My first year, a team of staff members worked on the movie plot for A Christmas Carol. The story had Bob acting like Ebenezer Scrooge and three ghosts had him looking at the past, present, and future of St. Luke’s.

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they wondered at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he made signs to them and remained dumb. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Charles Dickens wrote the amazing story A Christmas Carol. I have watched the movie version for far too many years to count. It’s one of my favorites. In Dickens’ work, we read of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly, selfish man who lives only for himself and his work. It does not matter what movie version we see; Ebenezer comes off as a miserable person: mean, greedy, abrasive, and very lonely. There are circumstances as to why he feels that way.

As we read the classical book or view one of the movie versions, Ebenezer finds himself in a very uncomfortable position. He is visited by his former partner and three spirits of Christmas: Past, Present and Future. During these encounters, he wrestles with how the past and present appear to define his future. At this point in the story, I would have inserted this phrase, “Ebenezer, our past helps to shape and form us, but it does not have to define us.”