Daily Broadside | Philippians 3:17
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.

Monday’s Reading: Colossians 1-4

Happy Monday, my friends. I think this is the part where I’m supposed to raise the curtain for the announcer.

My wife and I “put up” Christmas this weekend. If that sounds odd to your ears, what I mean is that we decorated the house.

When I was growing up we talked about “putting up” the Christmas tree, as in, “We put up the Christmas tree yesterday.” But never did we put up “Christmas.”

Now we do.

But how do you “put up” a concept? “Christmas” isn’t a physical object. It’s a season, a celebration, a holiday. Those are immaterial ideas that are expressed through things like Santa, lights, trees, presents, music, words, snow and cards. “Put up Christmas” is a time saving phrase that encompasses all of those things.

It’s an effective phrase, but it’s curious how the meaning of words shift over time. How did we get to where we talk about “putting up Christmas” as if it were a wall or a barricade? Who started using that phrase?

When I searched the question, “How did we get the phrase ‘put up Christmas’?” I got about 287,000 results with the top one being, “Why Do We Put up Christmas Trees?” Even Google doesn’t know where the phrase came from. And if Google doesn’t know …

I’m left to speculate and here’s what I think. We live in an era when the amount of time between desire and fulfillment has shrunk to the size of the space between a mosquito’s ears. You can sit in bed at 11:00 p.m., order an item from Amazon using your phone, and have it delivered the next day. Don’t ask me how I know.

That’s nearly “instant” gratification. The smaller the gap becomes between wish and fulfillment, the “faster” life moves. The longer we experience that speed, the more conditioned we are to expect it.

That conditioning leads to things like “put up Christmas.” Why take the time to say, “We put up the Christmas tree, then we put up the lights, and after that we put up the garland and wreaths”? We’ve got things to do, people to see, places to go. Much faster to drop the common nouns and just summarize everything in one big, happy word: we put up “Christmas.”

I may be wrong, but maybe I’m right. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, maybe not. The point is that we’re moving fast and even Christmas isn’t immune to the hurry of today’s life.

But Christmas is the very time we need to slow down. This is the season when we pause — PAUSE — to reflect on the fact that God initiated a rescue mission. The mission: to save mankind from the consequence of their sin, which was the unbelief and rejection of God.

That rescue mission had a Rescuer who showed up in the form of a child named Jesus. He’s the “reason for the season.” He’s the focal point of the celebration. He’s why we give gifts, decorate trees, string lights, and gather with family.

Without Jesus, we would be left to our own devices and face the consequences of our sinful condition, which is eternal separation from God. Faith in Jesus saves us from that dreadful fate.

Incredible.

This Christmas, don’t let the hurry whisk you past the significance of why we celebrate. Intentionally slow down. Give yourself time to genuinely reflect on the meaning of Christ’s birth. Sit in awe of the magnitude of what the Bible tells us.

There’s plenty of time to “put up Christmas.” Just don’t put up with hurry.