Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Christmas Season is Here!
Jared here, saying Merry Christmas everybody! It isn't too early to start saying that, is it? If it is, I don't care. One of the best things about writing on this blog is that I don't have to be as politically correct as I do when putting the newspaper together. Here I don't have to do that "inoffensive" Happy Holiday thing.
I know Bailey certainly doesn't mind a mention of Jesus. She's already got a big old nativity scene set up in the front window of Java Joint--Mary, Joseph, shepherds, even angels flying over the whole thing suspended from the ceiling. She's got all the cute little animals in there too. Can you believe Wilbur keeps suggesting she scatter coffee beans in there to simulate manure? He says it would lend accuracy. Every time I go in there, he's lobbying for coffee bean manure, asking innocent tourists things like, "You ever seen a barn without poop?"
Anyway, I think it looks great, Bailey. And I love having somewhere to go where Christmas is still about the nativity. Even the songs Bailey has playing are the good old carols. None of that "Santa Baby" stuff they're always blasting at the supermarket and the mall.
It's hard to be a newspaper man this time of year. Part of me wishes I could take the whole month off and whisk all my friends and family to a cabin in the mountains somewhere, so we could celebrate peacefully and simply without having to see the news. It makes me sad--people shooting and trampling each other to get the newest version of the Playstation. Other people putting themselves deep into debt buying things they don't need. Some suffering the loneliness of a holiday spent without family. Some spending it in Iraq.
But then I remember that Jesus knew how sad and wicked the world was, and He came into it on purpose. He didn't need a mountain cabin to hide in. He could have just stayed in heaven. But He didn't. He came--into the darkness, into the world full of greed and violence and loneliness, into a manure-filled stable.
Then I decide it is good to be at the paper, writing and reading the news, painful though it may be. It reminds me to pray more, give more, say Merry Christmas more often, and "God bless you," too. Wherever you are this season, I encourage you to be a light (like Bailey so faithfully is). Go down to the church and help Hank with the Christmas outreaches--the gift baskets for the poor, the carol sings at the nursing homes. Pray for our men and women overseas, visit someone who's lonely.
Okay, about now, Hank must be wondering if I'm trying to steal his job as preacher. I'm not, buddy. Just getting all this stuff off my chest that I can't print in the paper.
So maybe Wilbur has a point. The manure does matter. When we see it, smell its putrid odor, the wonder of Christ's holy presence is all the more amazing. Thank You for coming into such a dark world, Jesus.
Merry Christmas season everyone.
-- Jared
Where are you, Wilbur? Thought you'd appreciate all the press I gave you here.
blessing, e
<< Home
Bailey Truitt ~ Java Joint owner
Leslie Brymes ~ reporter extraordinaire
Carla Radling ~ realtor at your service
Wilbur Hucks ~ ya gotta love him
Jake Tremaine ~ retired logger
Ted Dawson (S-Man) ~ sci-fi writer
Hank Detcher ~ pastor and friend
Janet Detcher ~ keeps Hank in line
Bev Trexel ~ retired teacher
Angie Brendt ~ Bev's best pal
Sarah Wray ~ Simple Pleasures owner
Jared Moore ~ Kanner Lake Times
LEARN MORE ABOUT KANNER LAKE
FRIENDS
Sabrina Butcher
Rebecca Carter
Bonnie Calhoun
Laura Domino
Bob Edwards
Stephanie Fowler
Tracy Fowler
Beth Goddard
Gina Holmes
Bev Huston
Pamela James
Jason Joyner
David Meigs
Chris Mikesell
Dineen Miller
Sandra Moore
Vennessa Ng
Michelle Pendergrass
Cara Putman
Janet Rubin
Chawna Schroeder
Wayne Scott
Lynetta Smith
Michael Snyder
Lynette Sowell
Stuart Stockton
Kim Thomas
Jennifer Tiszai
Marjorie Vawter
Karen Wevick
Christian Novels
A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Mary DeMuth
Mary Ann Diorio
Ron Estrada
Girl's Write Out
Sandra Glahn
Rachel Hauck
Joy in the Litter Box
Yvonne Lehman
A Life in Pages
Margo's Moments
Rose McCauley
Jill Nelson
Pieces of Me
Readin N Writin with Patricia
John Robinson
Robin Lee Hatcher's Write Thinking
ShareMyTestimony
Sonoran Saga
Titletrakk.com
Unseen Worlds