I went to the post office today and bought a book of stamps. Being privileged to live in 21st century America, I had a choice . . . Do I want regular stamps or Christmas stamps?
I was in a good mood and felt like spreading some holiday cheer. “Christmas stamps!” I said. The postal worker behind the counter handed me my stamps with my change and then I realized that Bill O’Reilly was wrong.
There is no “War on Christmas.” How can people go to war when they don’t have a clue what their fighting against or defending?
In my hands I held freshly printed “Christmas Stamps” for 2006. Snowflakes. Four different kinds of snowflakes. No Merry Christmas, no Happy Holidays. Just four snowflake pictures repeated five times, 2006, 39¢.
I don’t remember the part in the Christmas story where the three wise men trudged all the way to Bethlehem, uphill, bare-foot, in two feet of snow. I forget, did Joseph have to brush the ice off of the donkey before he placed Mary on top, side-saddle?
Since when do snowflakes have anything to do with Christmas?
Then I wondered what else we’ve accepted without thinking. When we talk about community, are we talking about the real thing or snowflakes? Is community just the fellowship dinners and after-glow, or is it much more? When I say that my church is part of the Church of God, what does that mean? Do any of the people in my congregation know anybody else in any other Church of God congregation? Are we just a part of the Church of God on pieces of paper bound together to form a Yearbook, or is there greater substance?Christmas is so much richer that blue-ink snowflakes on sticky paper. Maybe community is too.
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