TRADITIONS!

 “Traditions”--that song from the 1964 Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof” comes to mind as I watch the world unfurl the yearly holiday expectations. Every November through end-of-December, they fill our short, dark, and cold (at least in my area) days with huge to-do lists. Parties, gifts, silly sweaters, shopping, greeting cards...and don't forget to put the manger scene in the front yard along with the blow-up Santa and save out a dollar for the store-front kettle where somebody's ringing a bell.

Do you get dizzy thinking of all that? I do. For those for whom a family death or serious health issue has changed family dynamics, the things that have become “Christmas” start sounding a little “tinny.” To adopt an amusing phrase of our times—usually reserved for somebody with a difficult personality or circumstance—it's a bit of a “hot mess.”

For some odd reason, I recently thought of my late mother's hobby of collecting novelty salt and pepper shakers. This had become a “thing” among many in the 1940s and 1950s. She had so many that most sat hidden in an upper kitchen cupboard. The “tradition” that made those little containers the “must-have” hobby simply faded. Yes, there are folks around who still “collect.” My quick online check revealed someone selling 101 salt-pepper pairs for $475. But far fewer are enchanted than were a half century or more ago.

Maybe this is too big a stretch, but I wonder if some of our holiday must-dos are as compulsive as stacking pairs of novelty salt-and-pepper shakers in a display cupboard. At the bottom line, how much is really necessary? How much truly honors the true reason for the season: the fulfillment of God's promise to send His Son as a Savior?

Yes, I admit to embracing some “traditions” in my holiday celebration. One is sewing pajama pants for my grandsons, along with the trip to the fabric store so that they can pick out their favorite print. This year, as they scrambled up and down the flannel and fleece aisles, the cutting-table clerk watched them in wide-eyed disbelief. What can I say? At 8, 10 and 12, my grandsons can explode with energy. By the time Christmas morning comes, they have figured out which package holds the “jammies.”

It must run in the family genes. In my childhood Christmases, one of my “traditional” gifts would be a new nightgown that my mom sewed. But we had another tradition before opening gifts: that of my dad reading the Christmas story from Luke's Gospel. I'm glad he did. Although I was probably as itchy as my grandsons to dive into the packages under the tree, I needed that Biblical reminder that the holiday's real name was not “Giftmas,” but Christ-mas.

THE OPPOSITE OF SNARKY....

The English language has some fun onomatopoeic words—meaning they “sound like” the action. I thought of that as we go through the holiday season with its rush-buy-party-etc busyness, and people can tend to get short-tempered. Or to use the “sound-like” word, snarky. It's defined as “bad-tempered, irritable, sarcastic, critical, indirectly mocking.” It dates to 1866 when “snark” also described how people “snorted” to express their displeasure. You get the picture.

Actually, we don't have to wait for December's holiday rush and frustrations for that personality transformation. Some people, sadly, are just that way, even past adolescence when the egotistic “everything's all about me” tends to surface in many. Whether through “attitude” or negative words, “snarkiness” wounds and often doesn't care.

My run-ins with snarky people probably have sensitized me to its depictions in the Bible. Surely that was true of the Pharisees in their reaction to Jesus. Or others who couldn't figure out why this carpenter's son from a little northern town was making such a big splash.

I suspect the apostle Paul struggled with that attitude when he was a good-and-proper (and negative) Pharisee. Then Christ stopped this hate-filled man in his tracks with a blinding, get-your-attention encounter. I “sense” the memory of this life-changing encounter in Paul's writings, like these naming "snarky's" opposite--gentleness--a word which in English carries a soothing feeling in its pronunciation:

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5)

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)

I'll keep this blog short. I think “gentleness” is best spoken of quietly. And I'll end with hopes that you will visit this gentle You-Tube of Bill Gaither singers sharing “Gentle Shepherd." As you listen, remember the One who called Himself the "Good Shepherd" and whose first post-birth visitors were....shepherds.

Bill & Gloria Gaither - Gentle Shepherd - YouTube

INEDIBLE!

Lots of tree shade and a soil acidity change combined as a “welcome mat” for some unwanted visitors late this fall. I woke up, looked outside, and behold—lots of little white “umbrellas” under the backyard fir trees, which have a thick rug of moist needle “mulch” underneath them.

Forget the cutesy drawings of little fairies or gnomes pulling a mushroom out of the ground for a quickie umbrella. Some mushrooms are edible, but many are not. In fact, they can make you very sick or even kill. They have lovely names like “Death Cap” and “Destroying Angel.” Not savvy enough to know what these were, I went the safe route. Donning my garden gloves, I pulled up each mushroom, dumped it in a bag, and then dropped the bag in the trash.  Not one to take chances, I'll reserve my “mushroom hunting” to the little cans at the grocery store!

If you research “mushrooms” on the internet, your blood may run cold from the warnings of toxicity of many varieties. But the edible ones are there, too. One ad promoted a pound of dried morel mushrooms for $222. Re-read the amount: a pound! I understand why: hard to find. But they're free to foraging animals—bears to boars—who find them in the wild and go yum yum.

It's okay if, after reading a bit about mushroom hunters, you read Jeremiah 15:16 (KJV) with a different perspective:

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

And maybe a chorus from the 1970s-or-so will come to mind with its music to these verses in Psalm 19:9-10 (KJV):

 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

I'm not implying any connection with the Bible and mushrooms, other than that the Bible often uses very ordinary comparisons to help us understand heavenly truths. Yes, finding honey was a big deal in Bible times. As for me, I don't think I've ever eaten a morel mushroom. The cheap canned stems and pieces on the grocery shelf, yes. The common fresh ones in the produce section (great for stir-fry), yes.

And maybe here's another lesson. God sometimes uses earthly analogies to help us understand heavenly realities. Even as we eat food (including “safe” mushrooms) to sustain our earthly bodies, our “spiritual nutrition” needs to include scripture. What's written there didn't suddenly pop up overnight. But it's pure enough and “nutritious enough” to keep us growing closer to God.