What gods Are We Serving Now?
After my father came home from World War II bitter, broken and addicted to alcohol, we experienced several lean Christmases. The most painful though, was his absence. My mother had our little Christmas by ourselves, because my father was somewhere unknown with his friends. I could see the pain etched in my mother’s face even though she worked hard not to show it. It muted most of our Christmas joy. What further pained us five (5) children was to know that our father preferred to be with others rather than his own children. He had other gods in his life.
I will be forever grateful for those three (3) men, with Bibles in their hands, who came to our home to visit with my daddy. These men had the aura of angels! By the surprised as well as humbled look on my father’s face, I could tell that, he too, felt the presence of the Lord through these men.
My father turned to us children and told us to go to the back bedroom and stay there until he came to get us. Since I had been praying for God to send someone to speak to my dad about Jesus, I was too excited to stay in the bedroom long. Being overwhelmed that God hears the prayers of a little five (5) year old, I sneaked around the end of the house to hear what these men were saying to my dad. I eased the kitchen door open to see these three (3) men kneeling around my dad who was seated on the couch. They were looking intently at him, with open Bibles, reading Scripture to him. I could see only half of my dad’s face, but what I saw caused a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. The Holy Spirit was convicting my dad! I watched long enough to hear my dad pray for God to deliver him from the god of alcohol and to help him be a better dad and husband. Then, I stealthily closed the kitchen door and ran back to join my siblings trying to look innocent.
In a few minutes, my father retrieved us from the bedroom and marched us into the living room. We sat on the couch and my father got on his knees in front of us and told us that we were all going to start attending church beginning this Sunday!
The next Christmas, our father joined us, in the wee hours of the morning, as we celebrated that Santa Claus had come! As I looked into my father’s eyes that Christmas morning, I celebrated, with unbridled joy, that Jesus had come to our house that Christmas!
As an adult, with my own, now grown children, I am reminded afresh that Jesus is indeed, the reason for the season. My heart hurts as I observe all of the secular holiday tradition that has pushed Jesus to the back of the room. It seems that we are serving other gods than the One who came to save us from our sins.
My wife and I have a retired missionary friend who has traditionally bought only one Christmas gift for each of his children and grandchildren. And then, after the gifts are opened, he reads the Christmas story from the Bible. Afterwards, they sit around and talk about the magnitude of such a heavenly gift wrapped in immeasurable love from heaven. And they pray together as a family! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every Christian family practiced this rather than letting other gods squeeze in and squeeze Jesus out?
May all enjoy a Christ-centered Christmas!
Ron McCaskill