Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

• Mark 1:6-8

“In his album The Eagle, country-western singer Waylon Jennings tugs at my heartstrings.  One of his tunes, ‘Old Church Hymns and Nursery Rhymes,’ takes me back to the simple days of yesteryear and swamps me with nostalgia.  ‘With a child’s wisdom, passin’ time, / Singin’ old church hymns and nursery rhymes.’
“As another Christmas rolls around, seems to me the nudge of a little ‘child’s wisdom’ might help put things in perspective.  So this year I’ve decided to look at everything through the eyes of a child: the holidays, the tree, the lights, the songs, the smells, the brightly colored presents, the decorated houses – everything.  Lost in the wonder of it all, I believe a little child would whisper these five requests.
“Slow down. …
“Stay home. …
“Tell stories. …
“Have fun. …
“Give yourself. …
“Christmas strips away the veneer of stacked-up years and brings us back to where we started.”

• Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch

I picked up another bit of wisdom in listening to Waylon Jennings in this song.  “And the only time I’ve known it all is just before I took a fall.”  (songwriter: B. N. Chapman).  It is kind of the opposite of what Charles Swindoll was getting at.  When we are young and, for the most part, innocent, we look at life with wonder, but once we grow up and think we know it all, we are probably about to have a fall.

I agree with Rev. Swindoll.  I do not wish to fall at Christmas this year.  I would much rather see wonder in the lights, trees, and brightly colored presents.  And the songs, especially the songs.

Someone once said, with their face in the usual snarl, that the only decent Christmas Carol was “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”  All the rest had so many errors in them that they weren’t worth singing.

I have written more than one post about the Christmas Myths, two recent quizzes for the most recent.  But I will lustily sing “We Three Kings” regardless of how many kings they might have been and whether they were kings at all.  I will sing about chestnut roasting although I have never roasted a chestnut.  And do silver bells sound that much better than other bells?

Now, I find the little drummer boy to be a little tedious.  The only version of the twelve days of Christmas that I enjoy is the Alan Sherman version.  On day 1, he gets a Japanese Transistor Radio, a Nakashuma, in a leatherette case with holes in it so you can listen through the case… (Each verse has a little more about the transistor radio, and I remember them so well.)  And finally on the twelfth day of Christmas, he goes to have all the previous gifts exchanged.  Now that 12 days I can relate to, although I have rarely exchanged anything.

But does it matter if a song gets the details right when the song puts you in that holiday spirit?  Like the little child within Charles, or should I say, Chuck Swindoll says, “Slow down.  Stay home.  Tell Stories.  Have fun.  Give Yourself.”

Especially, give yourself.  We can all provide Christmas cheer for someone else.

But this has been one of the most decisive political years that I have ever experienced.

Did you know that they even arrested Santa Claus?!?!?!?!

Amen!  There is a lot that is NOT Politically Correct, but it is RIGHT!

The one on the top of many people’s lists this time of year is:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

God loves you, and I do too.

That last one was a bonus, not PC statement.  And it is true, too.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.