January 27th, 2009
…was one of those metal types. I hear there are people who collect them. I still have this lunchbox complete with thermos and they are both somewhat prominently displayed on our bookshelf. It is a bit scratched up, but otherwise is in pretty good shape and if you open it up it still has the faint smell of peanut butter sandwiches and potato chips. This lunchbox has the cartoon characters from Peanuts on all its sides. Each day of the first grade Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and Woodstock would join me in the cafeteria of Eatonton Grammar School for lunch.
Nine years ago alongside many around the world I mourned the passing of the creator and illustrator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz. His death was somewhat poetic in that he died literally hours before his last strip was to be published in the Sunday paper. In the course of fifty years of Peanuts, many of us grew up with good ol’ Charlie Brown, and the rest of the gang. I am not sure if I ever missed a Christmas without watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I practically learned to read, along with millions of others, due to my love of comic strips like the Peanuts.
One of the things that I admired about Schulz’s life (and death) was his commitment to create right up until the very end. He understood that God had placed him here on this earth to positively contribute to his culture. He brought smiles to faces of all ages. He gently challenged and prodded our assumptions and prejudices. He wove in theology and spirituality and did his best not to denigrate others. I like today’s comics too, but most of them “bite” a little too much and are veiled heavy in sarcasm and cynicism.
And so for each of us it can be said that God has placed us here for a creative contribution to our culture. It is doubtful that none of us will have lunchboxes designed after our own creations, but like Schulz we can positively add to the lives of others. And like Schulz, may it be said at our deaths that we worked hard and we did so with integrity. And while life was unfolding we made others smile along the way.
Here you are dear reader, finishing another one of my columns. What wondrous gift awaits your creative contribution? There just might be a world leaning in to listen and maybe laugh with you.
Grace and peace,
Greg
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14)
January 3rd, 2009
…That is what it has felt like anyway; that we were packing away Christmas. We waited as long as we could but honestly the tree was becoming a fire hazard. It has been up since a day or two after Thanksgiving so I suppose it was time. Ten or eleven years ago when we lived in Chickamauga our Christmas tree was completely, 100%, bonafide dead a full week before Christmas day. On the 23rd I finally accepted the truth after I inadvertently sneezed on the tree and there were no needles left. Fortunately I found an abandoned tree lot and found a perfectly good tree resting in a ditch!
This year our tree held up much better, but nonetheless it was time to pack Christmas away. This past weekend Amy and I carted box after box back up into the attic, each filled with Christmas decorations that marked another Christmas in Augusta. This is always such a melancholy chore for me. Our house was festively marked with Christmas present and Christmas past. The ornaments we used included those we have acquired throughout our marriage including some cookie-dough ornaments we made as newlyweds. We had about a half-dozen ornaments from my grandmother’s tree that she used when my father was a baby. And each year we receive several special ornaments that are added and find their place among our collection of ornaments. Once the ornaments were placed back in their box, the tree was the last to go. There is such sadness in stripping a tree of its ornaments and lights. Standing by itself, its branches dropped and dry, the tree gave a bleak testimony that Christmas must be over.
Or is it?
I guess whether or not Christmas is over depends on one’s view of Christmas. If Christmas is an event then yes, it is over. But isn’t Christmas really a reminder? God has come to dwell with us and dwells with us still. One cannot simply pack Christmas away! God is here as we face another day and another year; God is here with our churches and wherever sisters and brothers gather in the name of the Child.
As we enter into this “new” year why not claim Jesus’ own words to his followers: “Let your light shine!” (Matthew 5:16a). We do not need a tree or ornaments or electric lights. We simply need each other, the community of faith, to move beyond our walls and into the community, region and world..
We will hear more about letting our light shine in the great year ahead of us. Pack Christmas away? We don’t have to. Not as long as the light of Christ shines in us and through us.
Grace be with you,
Greg