December

 December

Sunday, December 5, 2021

What is December? Why, it’s the last month of the year. Yes, that, and so much more.

As the last month of the year, it is a time of reflection. These past months have a particular character to them. One magazine has titled 2021 the year of “endurance.” But your experience might use a different word, a harder one. 

I thought the year 2020 was a tough year. It was tough for businesses and families. It was tough for churches. And it has remained tough. December, 2020 did not bring about an end to the year’s difficulties and divisions. It continued this year, along with other things, dragging cancers from 2020 into 2021. 

December is the beginning of our winter. It signals that, after this month, there will be more winter, only more so. It will get colder; more snow. And we’ve got a long way to go. December may signal the end of the calendar year, but it does not signal the end of a season. And we find ourselves in seasons of unknown duration.

But December is also the month of Christmas. The whole of the month seems to be given over to celebration of this holi-day, now turned into something of a secular-day - not now quite so holy. But it is the month of preparation and gatherings and celebrations, if pestilence allows. There are gifts to buy and then to wrap. Invites and reservations are hard to come by.

And the music! December has its own music. Caroles and cantatas. Boy choirs and brass choirs. We gather to listen; to sing.

And December has its birthday - the birthday of the King. Yes, as alluded above, we’ve shoved aside the birthday boy for the sake of the party. But Jesus’ birth story is still repeated, and read, and dramatized, both in still life and in childhood plays. And yes, we pay nearly as much attention to the other characters of Christmas as we do to Jesus - Mary and Joseph; shepherds and wise men. But it is December, and it’s Jesus’ month. It belongs to Him, as does every other month of the year, though we may not be so aware. 

The magic of Christmas; the mystery of Christmas - is this little baby who is packed full of divinity, wrapped all around with humanity. This joyful month is met with a sobriety as we realize that He is sent to this world as a baby for the particular purpose that He might die for us. December! What a wonderful, perturbing month!