F R O M
“ B A H
H U M B U G ”
by Pastor Kaitlyn Forster (kaitlynf@lordoflife.org)
By now, we are well within the ‘Christmas Season’ that seems to begin around Halloween and will end right around New Year’s. It’s a spectacle of lights and purchases, decorations and displays, and way too many opportunities for overindulgences. All for what? Santa coming to town? The birth of a baby in a manger? A reason to get energized in the darkest months of the year? Maybe a combination of all of those. Do you get excited for Christmas? If so, what about it gets you excited? I don’t ask that to be an Ebenezer Scrooge crying, “Bah Humbug” on this beloved holiday. But there is some truth to the overcommercialization that we’ve gotten into. Almost as if we do not do all the things and check off all the lists—the nice ones, of course—that we’re somehow doing it wrong. And quite honestly, I’m not sure I’m interested in all of that pressure, especially this year. When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, “Bah Humbug” was a fairly common phrase that became popularized by this novella. A ‘humbug’ is something that is intended to deceive or mislead. So, when Ebenezer Scrooge shows us his crabby pants, it isn’t to simply be a grump. He’s naming that the Christmas cheer
FROM 'BAH HUMBUG' to blessed.................2-3 BIBLE 101: NATIVITY ........................................4-5 community life / confirmands...............6-7 GIFT IDEAS / LIGHT THE WAY.........................8-9 CHRISTMAS MUSIC / contacts ................ 10-11
2
T O
