Christmas Message

MINISTRY OF ENCOURAGEMENT MESSAGE FOR DECEMBER, 2024 No. 255 Now that Thanksgiving Day is past and Black Friday is now history, it is the time of the year when focus is on the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas. I stand amazed as to how Christmas is now celebrated from how it was when I was growing up and times were a lot different than they are now. There was no such thing as Black Friday, there was no Wal-Mart, there was no Amazon and no on-line shopping. The only line we knew about was the clothes line out in the yard to hang the washing on to dry. There were no credit cards back then and Christmas money depended on whether or not my Daddy had sold enough bales of cotton to the local gin in Hiram to bring in some much needed money. Yes, times were hard back then, but we were a happy family. Poor as Job’s turkey we were, but I am so thankful that I grew up when times were hard and we did not know what “being born a silver platter,” meant. I like what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:10, “Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I was forward to do.” When it came to Christmas decorations, they were few and far between. We had no Hobby-Lobby to shop at to get a vast array of decorations for the Christmas tree that we found growing in the woods. I remember so well how me and my brothers would go out and search for the tree to bring home to Mama to decorate. We had a neighbor, Mr. Will Fannin and his old maid sister, Narcissus Fannin, who had a farm near us and for some reason cedar trees were in abundance on their place. That is where we would go and ask, “Could we please look for us a Christmas tree and if we find one do you mind if we cut it down?” Of course, the answer was always, “Help yourself boys.” Now, most of the time the cedar tree would be one sided so when we got it home, the bad side went against the wall and sometimes we had to take a string and tie it to the wall to keep it upright. Next, Mama would get out the cardboard box containing what few tree decorations we had left over from previous years. The roping would sometimes be frayed from years of use, the silver icicles were always tangled and had to be straightened out and of course, the few strings of lights were a matter of prayer that they would light up when plugged into the drop cord. Always on the tree top was an angel that qualified for Medicare because it was so old, but it was so pretty sitting there on top of our cedar tree. One year, it had been a pretty good year for my family and we were able to get us one of those aluminum trees with the light that rotated red, green, yellow and white. Lord, I thought we were now rich with that aluminum tree and the rotating light. We would just sit and stare at that tree waiting for the colors to change. Daddy would not let us leave the rotating light on for a long period of time because he said, “Now, we can’t waste electricity on that new fangled tree.” In our kitchen ,which had a good wood burning stove to cook on, my dear and precious Mama would start baking her Christmas cakes a week or so before Christmas to have on hand when company came to visit. Oh, how I wish I could have just one more slice of her chocolate cake or the fresh coconut cake and I can never forget the Japanese Fruit cake she always made at Christmas for us to enjoy. Our old farm house was always cold in the winter months, so Mama would keep her cakes, pies, cookies in the front bedroom of the house and it was an absolute miracle they did not freeze. When family and neighbors would drop in to say, “We just wanted to come by and wish y’all a Merry Christmas,” Mama would go to the front bedroom bring out the cakes, pies and cookies and everyone had to sit down for time of fellowship around the table. Folks would just stay and talk and eat because they had nothing else to hurry up and do. Yes, we were poor, but life was good to us and Christmas was always a time remembering what Christmas was all about and it centered around the birth of Jesus. On Christmas morning, my Daddy would get up early before we kids got up and would start a fire in the fireplace to take off some of the cold. I remember the first Radio Flyer red wagon that I got one Christmas and years later, I finally got me a bicycle for Christmas and I rode it all day on Christmas day. I was so thankful that I now had me my own bicycle. On our fireplace, hung some of Mama’s old cotton stockings for our Christmas to be put into. There was always a coconut, an apple, an orange and a pack of dried raisins still on the stems in my stocking hanging from the mantle. The only reason I could ever figure out for the coconut being in there was that it would be used for another fresh coconut cake after Christmas. Once the fire was started in the wood stove in the kitchen, my Daddy would go out to the smoke house and cut a big slab of country ham and bring back for Mama to cook for breakfast. Our Christmas morning breakfast was made up of country ham, red-eyed gravy, eggs, homemade biscuits and sorghum syrup. We never heard of the words, “brunch” or “Christmas casserole,” used because there were no such things back then. Today, modern day folks just don’t know what they missed when times were hard, folks were neighbors, love abounded because everyone was in the same boat, and Christmas was truly the most wonderful time of the year. In this modern day, it is all centered upon spending and seeing who can out decorate one another. Today, the focus is on everything but the One that Christmas is about, the Lord Jesus Christ who, Himself, was born in a cow stall in Bethlehem. That is why Jesus could always identify Himself with the poor and I am so thankful that today He, like Paul, still says, “Remember the poor.” My prayer for each of you this Christmas is that you will take your focus off on how much you can spend on buying gifts for others, but that you will spend time focusing on the One who was the greatest gift that mankind could every receive and He is the one gift to us that we will have to enjoy for all eternity. Thank you for letting me share my “Precious Memories” with you this month and I want to thank each of you for your gift of love and friendship, gifts that money cannot buy, that you show to me. May the One that Christmas is all about bless you and your family beyond measure during this special time of the year. Rev. Don Rackley Ministry of Encouragement