The Significance Of Celebration

It's almost December, and honestly, I still feel like it's July. As Christmas lights have begun to appear, and holiday commercials have flooded the airways, more and more I have been feeling like I was scooped up this summer and sent 'back to the future'. Some part of me has failed miserably to adjust to the passing of the last several months.

Of course, I've been wondering why I feel this way. How did I end up an alien in my own time?

After much in depth soul searching (well, a little at least), I realized I have had no milestones to mark the latter half of this year. This summer I moved to a remote area where time meant nothing. I worked two to three weeks at a stretch. Sundays were meaningless. Statutory holidays were tagged onto my days off. Thanksgiving was spent alone in my cabin, where I ate a chicken burger for dinner once I realized what day it was. Each day was the same as the one before, and the one after.

Now that I have returned home, I am beginning to have a new understanding of the significance of celebration. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to feast several times a year, in remembrance of blessings and miracles God had worked for them at different times. They were also commanded to take it easy one day a week. This is how they divided up their year, and it is how we divide up ours. We look forward to our weekends, our long weekends, Easter, Christmas, New Year, and a couple weeks vacation to someplace special. It is these milestones that define time for us more than the moon, the stars, or any calendar.

Historically there has, and continues to be, much debate over which day God commanded us to rest every week. More than ever I believe our sin is not in choosing the 'wrong' day, but to let it pass by without regard. It is a day to 'rest' - really to wrest ourselves from the rush and routines that define us all week - and allow ourselves to be redefined by the One who transforms our hearts.

This Christmas has become for me much more than a family weekend, or even a spiritual event. I realize as I purpose to celebrate Christmas in all its fullness - venerating the spiritual, enjoying my family, and honoring special traditions - I will be transformed by it. I hope as I look back I will remember a rich and defining milestone.