Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

By Susan Mitchell

This year, we at Estuary Courts (Susan, Dorothy, and Darla) have shut down for the holiday and will be celebrating together a little later than everyone else in order to accommodate the schedules of the members of our family coming together from multiple places.

Dorothy has a perspective on the Christmas holiday that she published here: https://theparacleteshammer.com/2022/12/14/no-room-in-the-christmas-inn-for-jesus-by-dorothy-mitchell/

The end of that post is especially amazing as points to ponder, so I’m quoting it here, along with some photos of our home decorations:

For my own family, when we have asked how we can best represent Jesus in this season, he has replied that since the purpose of Christmas these days is to show love to one another, we should decorate to the degree that decorations support that effort—to display just enough to make one another feel warm, welcome, and comfortable, and not to stand out with a lack of decoration.

Now ask the Lord for your own instructions. Or make him a proposal and ask for his approval. Your choice!

We are welcome to celebrate [Jesus] anytime, whether in June, or September, or May, or October. You may celebrate him on Sukkot (for he tabernacled with us). You may celebrate him on Hannukah (for he is the light of the world). Or do you want to celebrate him 5-6 days before or after Rosh Hashanah, in accordance with the medieval reasoning for the December 25th date? Go for it! You are welcome to celebrate his conception, or his trimesters, or his birth. You are welcome to consider his stays in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Egypt on a five- or three-year cycle. (How I long to know what challenging experiences Mary and Joseph went through while on Mission Savior’s Toddlerhood: Escape from Herod – Emergency Staycation in Egypt!) You can speculate when and where the journey of the magi began and ended and celebrate their progress over the course of the year. You may imagine when the angel appeared to Mary. You have the opportunity to consider Jesus’ birth at every census, at every quest for reunion and rediscovering homeland, at every farm, at every hotel and inn, or with every new baby. You may even confront or redeem a relevant holiday of your own problematic pagan heritage. You are free to play it safe and free to take risks.

God bless us all as we wind up this 2022 year and praise his name for all the good he has wrought, including the hugely consequential birth of his son, the Immanuel Jesus Christ.