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“I want the J! Please! I want the J”

I looked down at the plate of sugar cookies I was carrying to the kids to decorate. There were a half dozen reindeer,  gingerbread men that more or less resembled the Michelin man, candy canes, trees, and stars.

“I’m sorry; I don’t have any cookies cut out in letters.”

“Yes you do!” She ran over, snatched a candy cane shaped cookie, and busily slopped red and white icing on it.

Of course, given the cookie’s context, I don’ t know how that shape could have been anything but a candy cane. But this girl got one glance of it and determined it was the letter J.

Which got me to thinking: Why isn’t the traditional candy cane a straight stick? It seems like that would be easier to produce. Perhaps it’s so that we can easily hang them on the branches of our Christmas trees.

Or is the candy cane more poignant than we realize?

In 1670, the the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral had sticks of candy bent into the shape of a shepherd’s crook and passed them out to the children who attended the Christmas ceremony. The use of candy canes seems to have immigrated to America in the 1800’s. However, according to pictures on Christmas cards made before 1900, the canes were still completely white.

Can we use the candy cane to point our children to Jesus this Christmas season?

Yes. The legend of the candy cane is that the shape resembles the shepherd’s crook to remind us of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. The white stripe represents the purity of Jesus’ birth and life and the bold red stripe represents God’s love. The flavor of mint is similar to hyssop, which, in Old Testament times, was associated with purification and sacrifice. In the New Testament, it was used at the cross as Jesus was dying in our place as a punishment for our sin.

Whether or not this legend is fact, the candy cane presents us as believers with a simple opportunity to share the truth of the Good News of our Savior.

Come, they told me pa-rum pum pum pum
Our newborn King to see, pa-rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring pa-rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King pa-rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum. rum pum pum pum
So to honor Him pa-rum pum pum pum
When we come

Little Baby pa-rum pum pum pum
I am a poor boy too, pa-rum pum pum pum
I have no gift to bring pa-rum pum pum pum
That’s fit to give our King pa- rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum
Shall I play for you, pa-rum pum pum pum
on my drum?

Mary nodded pa-rum pum pum pum
The Ox and Lamb kept time pa-rum pum pum pum
I played my drum for Him pa-rum pum pum pum
I played my best for Him pa -rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum
Then He smiled at me pa-rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum

“The Little Drummer Boy” (originally known as “Carol of the Drum”) is a popular Christmas song written around 1941. As you read above, it’s about a poor young bog who was summoned to the nativity where he was supposed to give the infant Jesus a gift. Having no gift, he played his drum, and the baby Jesus smiled.

How do you buy a gift for someone who already has everything?

It’s officially December and Kevin and I have gifts stashed in various rooms in our apartment. Some of the gifts truly stumped us – we knew we needed to buy something for one person in particular, but neither of knew what this person would enjoy. We paced the aisles in Walmart fruitlessly for twenty minutes until finally one object caught our attention. “That’s it!” We knew we had found a good gift.

But I can’t imagine buying a gift for God. He truly does have everything. And it’s not like I can get a gift that can surprise Him.

Does that mean I shouldn’t even try?

No. We aren’t called to give God our iPads, cars, or jewelry. We are exhorted to give Him our thanks.

Psalm 118: 28-29 says, “You are my God, and I will give You thanks. You are my God; I will exalt You. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever.”

Jeremiah 33:11 says there will be heard again “the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Praise the LORD of Hosts, for the LORD is good; His faithful love endures forever as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the LORD.”

God never wearies of our praise. We never exhaust our thanks. His mercies are new each morning, so our praises never cease.

Is my gratitude enough?

1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 both remind us that God has given each of us different gifts but we are still a part of the same body whose goal is to bring praise to the same Lord. Some of the gifts include: service, teaching, encouragement, giving, and leading. No matter the gift, we are called to obey and bring glory to our Creator.

Like the little drummer boy, we are poor men and women – we can never own anything grand enough that  is fit for the King, the Lord Jesus. What we can do is be thankful for the gifts He has entrusted us with and faithfully praise His name.

Returning to work from a four-day holiday is never fun. Even though last week was the official day of thanksgiving, I still have something to be thankful for this week – social media.

Thanks to the wonderful designs of Evan Davis, along with the diligent work of my loving husband, you can now stay connected to Pedestrian God via social media.

Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pedestriangod

Follow us on Twitter: @PedestrianGod

Thank you all for your readership and support. Now, go like the page!

My husband spent the last several weeks unsubscribing from mailing lists so that he would stop receiving spam emails.

Me? I spend the first couple minutes at my computer deleting the long list of junk messages. It’s not like they really affect me life. So what if I have 50 emails Monday morning simply because I didn’t check all weekend?

Kevin’s inbox is almost completely free from random solicitations. Mine, however, overflows and floods my computer screen.

When Kevin receives an email, he knows its contents have a purpose and directly relate to him. It took him time and effort to delete his email from the accounts,  but the results were worthwhile because he decluttered his life.

If we don’t take the time to remove the things from our lives that distract us, we never gain traction to a pure life.

The apostle Paul prayed that the Philippians would grow in “discernment to know what really matters so that they will be presented as pure and blameless on the day of Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-10)

I’m not speaking specifically toward emails here. It’s just an example to get us thinking.  Television shows empty of truth dirty my life. Music idealizing worldly possessions revert my attention away from Christ.

I wonder, what else clutters our life and disguises itself as important?

Caleb, Jacob, Rachel, and Abby joined David Curtis in leading the youth in worship during our final session. They did a great job! We’ll welcome David back any time possible.

Toby concluded the night by giving the youth a time to laugh. It’s amazing how many church bulletin typos he shared with us.

We are not rooted in God’s love if we are not joyful. The three main thieves of our joy are 1) Satan 2) Self and 3) Situations. Our joyfulness flows from knowing that our God is in control. The God who is in us is greater than the god of this world. Our actions spring from a boldness and confidence that only the Holy Spirit can give. In the words of the song “Our God” that our band sang this weekend, “And if our god is with us, then what could ever stop us. And if our God is for us, then what could stand against.”

Thank you to all of our church members who committed to pray for individual students this weekend and to write them a note. Thank you to the Sunday school class that stepped up and provided amazing suppers for the students. And a huge thank you to the brave college students that acted as small group leaders and to the church families who opened up their homes for the students to spend the night in. God has truly been at work in their lives this weekend. May all glory go to Him and Him alone.