My Christmas Memories

Two Reflections Gleaned from Celebrating Fifty-nine Christmases

Once we’re no longer children, no matter how nice or cool we might think we look, in time, we will see that we were in fact delusional.

Some Christmas in the future, I’ll be the

one missing from the family photo.

And so will you.And everyone else.

Forever.

“Way to pop our Joy Bubble on Christmas Sunday, Pastor Ken.”

Behind the presents and pageants lies

the unpleasant awareness of

Life’s many harsh

realities.

The Gift God gave the world that first Christmas was to

remedy the unpleasant realities

of sin and death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And

this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone

can have a whole and lasting life.

John 3:16

Mortal sinners living in a sinful world.

ROMANS 3:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

Perish“come to destruction, be lost”

E R N E S T B E C K E R

–Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

“Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with.”

–Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

“The knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and animals are spared it. They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness: a few minutes of fear, a few seconds of anguish, and it is over. But to live a whole lifetime with the fate of death haunting one's dreams and even the most sun-filled days—that's something else.”

Blissfully ObliviousOnly 12-15 years

“I’m Kogi the Corgi. Let’s go explore!”

There’s non-existence. And then there’s being judged

as sinners and suffering the wrath of God.

MATTHEW 13:49 This is how it will be on judgment day. The angels will come. They will separate the people who did what is wrong from those

who did what is right. 50 They will throw the evil people into the blazing furnace. There the evil

ones will weep and grind their teeth.

JOHN 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 Anyone who

believes in the Son has eternal life. Anyone who does not believe in the Son will not

have life. God’s anger remains on them.”

ROMANS 3:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

Everlasting“whole and without end”

Then and Now

–Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

“The irony of man's condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive.”

less than whole

JOHN 10:9 “I’m like a gate. Anyone who enters through me will be saved. They will come in

and go out. And they will find plenty of food. 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come so they may have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.”

“The Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep.”

Open the Gift of the Gospel with Wide-eyed Wonder

MATTHEW 1:21 “Mary is going to have a son. You must give him the name Jesus. That’s because he will save his people from their sins.”