Keep on Feasting!
By Pastor Julie Hawkins
Pastor of Ministry
One of my daughters asked me what I was most excited about this Christmas. Our advent reading had talked about the growing anticipation and expectation for the celebration of Christmas. Part of that is naming what we are excited about.
For me, the best part of Christmas is Christmas dinner. Joey and I love to host a big gathering with family and friends. It’s a special time filled with joy and laughter. We set the table with my great-grandmother’s fine china and elegant tablecloths, and the kids delight in the festive treats. As we gather around the table, we raise our glasses to celebrate our King, Jesus.
I love the preparation that goes into the party. I feel like Joey and I, as a couple, become the best version of Team Hawkins when we are planning a party. It is such a fun partnership. Battle buddies in the grocery store, dance-partners in the kitchen. We encourage each other, we laugh together, we usually have one or two little argument that remind us of our ongoing process of redemption. And we have so much fun preparing this feast.
It’s the best party and I look forward to it all year. And every year it is over so fast! All that preparation, and just like that, it’s done.
20th-century novelist, playwright, and theologian G.K. Chesterton sums up this feeling well:
Modern men have a vague feeling that when they have come to the feast, they have come to the finish. By modern commercial customs, the preparations for it have been so very long and the practice of it seems so very short.
Once the last dish is dried, Christmas feels over and it’s time to clean up pine needles and bits of wrapping paper, switch back from Christmas music to our regularly scheduled programming.
But what if it wasn’t? What if Christmas Day was the start of our celebration? Afterall, we spend a whole month in Advent anticipating and expecting, waiting for Christmas. What if we relished in the celebration and continued to feast? What if we lived as people proclaiming, “Joy to the world! The Lord has come!”? Certainly, that’s a celebration that should last longer than one day!
Now, I am not advocating that you keep your tree up all year or listen to Christmas music in April. But I am inviting you to let Christmas linger a little longer than one day. Think of ways to bring the feast into the new year. Continue to celebrate the birth of our Lord! Keep on feasting, because our King is here!
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Julie
P.S.—We hope that you’ll start your Christmas celebration with us here at Chapel Hill. Come as we continue through Micah tomorrow, studying one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. Come again for our Christmas Eve celebrations on December 23 and December 24. We hope we’ll see you there!