As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84: 5-7, a Psalm of the Sons of Korah
As we prepare to Advent this year, I would like to share with you some scripture that has become apart of my preparations for Christmas each year, my advent celebrations.
The first, being that of Psalm 84. The Christmas tree plays a big part of my Advent celebration in my house with there being roughly 12-14 trees each year within my house. Why the Christmas tree? Yes, it is believed there are some ties to the "bringing in of the greens" and a hope for good luck for the new year (along with numerous other traditions depending on the culture and country you celebrate within) with the tradition of the Christmas tree, but I have a different aspect on the Christmas tree...let me explain.
The Psalm written by the Korahites is a great Psalm, as is the majority of their Psalms, but I greatly enjoy this Psalm because of its focus on the importance of the house of God. The joy found and the yearning to be at the house of God. Not meaning, the church building, but yet in a much broader and real sense, "the place where God dwells". We know that He does not dwell within walls built by men (as Solomon attested as he christened the temple) and Paul preached about as he spoke in Athens, but instead the true temple of God is within the human Spirit.
(1 Corinthians 6 also brings attention to this fact of our bodies being the temple of God)
Let's start from that point: that we are the house of God, where God dwells.
Second, let's move along to the verses quoted above. Those whose strength is found in God, those who set their heart on pilgrimage. To do what, you ask? To Worship God, but in fulfillment, to go home! To return home to the true Zion, to attain that which is pre-loaded into the human heart, eternity; eternity in the presence of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
So first, we in a sense are the very temple in which even the birds wish to dwell within. Second, the pilgrimage we are ultimately on is life itself as we head to the grave. Which also reminds me of the words of Scrooge's nephew Fred in regard to Christmas:
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
Charles Dickins, "A Christmas Carol"
It's a time like no other where we actually see each other as people, all on the same pilgrimage, all on the same journey and as we know life is, this journey always brings us to places of sorrow, place of tears, place of hardship and times of dry times. In the Psalms it says they pilgrim, they pass through the valley of Baka, which is the Valley of the Balsam trees. It was a symbol of a place of dryness and sorrow, a place of loneliness, a place of weeping. The Balsam was known as the "weeping tree".
As you know the Balsam is also the traditional American Christmas tree, in which is displayed in millions of homes. So very literally we travel each December through a forest of balsam trees and quite metaphorically for many December and the holidays are a time of loneliness, a time of remembering better days past and too often. Or with my favorite quote from "Mixed Nuts".
Christmas is a wonderful time and a wonderful opportunity. Use it and enjoy every single moment of it. This very weekend begins my preparations for Christmas, this weekend I begin decorating and November 1, Hallowmass begins my countdown till Christmas. Will you join me this year in the sacred journey toward the birth of the Messiah?
Will you reach out this year and consider others as perhaps more than just other creatures bound on other journey, but perhaps as people all on the same journey? Will you open up your shut up heart this year?
Make sure to join my blog and stayed tuned!
