Jason's Blog

The Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts is a blog (and website and a book) that puts cheer back into the month of December.  Look around and you’ll find many tips about the holiday season, the history of various traditions (like yule logs and Christmas cookies), and actual recipies that your family will love.

Below is the history of poinsettias from Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts posted by Terra Hangen.  Enjoy!

At our house we always have at least one gorgeous Poinsettia as part of the holiday decorations. Do you feel the same about these pretty plants?

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the Poinsettia has a place in homes in many countries at Christmas time. Dr. Poinsett was the U.S. Minister to Mexico in the 1820s, a position we now call Ambassador. He was an amateur botanist and was thrilled to find this beautiful plant growing wild in Mexico.

In 1829 when Dr. Poinsett returned home to the United States, he brought Poinsettias with him and cultivated them in his greenhouses at his home in South Carolina, giving them to friends and spreading the word about their beauty.

In Mexico Poinsettias have the poetic name of “flor de noche buena” or “flower of the holy night.” This plant became a Christmas flower through a legend with varying details, but a central theme. A poor child in Mexico longed to bring a gift for the baby Jesus, to present at the church’s nativity scene. All the child could find to give was a plain green bouquet of weeds, but as the child approached the nativity scene, the tops of the green weeds glowed in crimson red, making a strikingly glorious gift.

The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633-4) Nicolas Poussin

Over the last few days, I have been re-reading the story of Aaron and the Golden Calf (can I call this the first Sacred Cow?). On the one hand, it strikes me as such a strange, strange story. However, on closer reflection, it is my story.

The character that most puzzles me is Aaron. He is a priest of God, a witness to the Red Sea, water from the Rock, and the descent of manna from heaven. Yet, when Moses is delayed in coming back to the people, Aaron crumbles.

I love his explanation to Moses:

1. You know how these people are – they are bent on evil (Exo. 34:23)
2. I told them to take off their gold and when I threw it in the fire – out came this calf (Exo. 32: 24)

The Bible says that the people were running wild because Aaron had allowed them to do so, and this was to “the derision of their enemies” (Exo. 34:25). Can’t you see the Moabites laughing about the silly calf-worshipping Israelites? Who needs TV sitcoms when you can watch the Israelites acting so stupidly?

Who could explain Aaron’s absolute disregard for his brother Moses and the ways of God? Who could have seen this coming when Aaron marveled at the Plagues? Aaron the high priest has become a blamer unwilling to take any responsibility.

Before I come down too hard on Aaron, I should look closely in the mirror. God asks me to guard my heart and stand before him with clean hands. How many times have I given in to the demands of others?

Another way to look at this story is as an allegory. Aaron can stand for my heart – the center of who I am before God. The people of Isreal can represent the demands of my feelings and my body. How many times have I catered to the demands of my desires?

“If we ask ourselves why we think, feel, and act in such a way, we often have no answer, thus proving to be strangers in our own house” Henri Nouwen, Show Me the Way, p. 82

Do I know myself? Am I attentive to the call of God, or, am I driven by whatever screams the loudest?

Lord, give me the grace to listen to You rather than demands of others or the clamoring of my feelings. Give me the great, satisfying sense of joy and peace that comes from loving You. Change the inclinations of my heart that I will to love what you love. I don’t want be like Aaron. – Through Christ I pray, Amen

The good news of Aaron’s story is that he seems to have changed his mind and repented. He turned his life around after this terrible debacle.

Below is stirring quotation from John Stuart Mill’s (1806–1873) On Liberty that he wrote in 1869.  I hope you will really think about it.  I think he describes a rather sober but all-too-real picture of the way life really is.

“All Christians believe:

• that the blessed are the poor and humble, and those who are ill-used by the world;
• that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven;
• that they should judge not, lest they be judged;
• that they should swear not at all;
• that they should love their neighbor as themselves,
• that if one take their cloak they should give him their coat also;
• that they should take no thought for the morrow;
• that if they would be perfect, they should sell all that they have and give it to the poor.

They are not insincere when they say they believe all these things.  They do believe them, as people believe what they have always lauded and never discussed.  But in the sense of that living belief that regulates conduct, they believe these doctrines just up to the point to which it is usual to act upon them.

The doctrines in their integrity are serviceable to pelt adversaries with; and it is understood that they are to be put forward (when possible) as the reasons for whatever people do that they think laudable. But any one who reminded them that the maxims require an infinity of things which they never even think of doing, would gain nothing but to be classed among those very unpopular characters who affect to be better than other people.

The doctrines have no hold on ordinary believers—are not a power in their minds. They have an habitual respect for the sound of them, but no feeling which spreads from the words to the things signified, and forces the mind to take them in, and make them conform to the formula. Whenever conduct is concerned, they look round for Mr. A and B to direct them how far to go in obeying Christ.”

I once heard a story of proposed a book title that was immediately rejected by a Christian Publishing House– Christianity, As If Jesus Really Mattered. They thought it was too edgy and perhaps a book by this title would be over the top. However, the plain reality is that we often fail to apply the plain facts of Scripture to our everyday circumstances. As Mill suggests above – Christian truth is not a power in our minds.

This weekend I would invite you to read the gospel of Matthew and look for average ways that you can think about what is taught. Turn your mind toward God and expect God to challenge you of the real places in your life where you can be more like Jesus.

It is easy when we face stress and difficult times to freeze up and complain.  This is exactly how the Israelites acted when their journey out of Egypt got tough.  They saw Pharaoh drawing near with his troops; the sea blocked their only escape. And Moses seemed to have a great answer, “Stand firm.  You will see deliverance today.  The LORD will fight for you, and you will have only to keep still” (Exodus 14:13-14).

Moses is the epitome of a non-anxious presence, and his answer was textbook until that last phrase.

God breaks up the Moses monologue with a startling exhortation, “Why do you cry out to me?  Tell the Israelites to go forward.  But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.”

So given this impossible situation, God is not going to bring in a cavalry and mop up the Egyptians.   Moses will have to lead the people through their fears to trust in dry ground.

What circumstances are you facing that make you throw up your hands and say, “I don’t know what to do!”  Does it look like a total “lose-lose” situation.  Are you expecting God to just swoop in and make everything clear?

If you are – keep in mind that in one of the greatest God-driven deliverance stories of all time, Moses still had to make a choice and do something.  It is my experience that God usually joins us and “makes a way where there seems to be no way” only when we step forward and act decisively.

Don’t be a victim of your circumstances.  Actively seek to work with God and live for Him today.