Excerpt from Luke 12:35-39

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver
 
This season is full of traditions and rituals, only some of which take place in church.  In our family, decorating the tree is a yearly ritual that is so firmly ingrained that it seems to have its own liturgy.
 
Each year I pull out the ornament I made in kindergarten.  It is a Styrofoam ball with toothpicks stuck into it that is spray-painted light blue, topped off with silver glitter.  Most of the toothpicks have fallen out by now and much of the glitter is gone, too, but I will invariably comment on the beauty of this ornament.  We call it "Sputnik," because it looks something like that first Russian spacecraft, which was launched about the time I made this ornament. 
 
There are many other ornaments we love.  There are silly ornaments, plain ornaments, beautiful ornaments, homely ornaments, ornaments we had forgotten existed until they are unwrapped and others we could never forget, ornaments with which we have only a nodding acquaintance and those that are like cherished friends.  Some ornaments we may not particularly like.  They may be ugly or tacky or worn or may seem strangely out-of-date.  But we make room for them anyway because, somehow, they have become part of our family and family is all about loving the ones you are stuck with. 
 
There is much about this season that can distract us from the central message and meaning of this time.  There are ways in which Christmas has become more like a pagan festival than a celebration of the birth of Christ, more about the giving and receiving of trinkets than the gift God gave us in Christ.  But then we gather around the Christmas tree, a pagan symbol, and hang all of those trinkets on its branches, and I am unspeakably grateful for the mystery of life that crackles just below the surface in this season.

Prayer

God, give me eyes to see you in unexpected times and unlikely places.  And give me a heart ready to receive you whenever and wherever you appear. Amen.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. His new book, This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, co-authored with Lillian Daniel, has just been published.