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Category: Christmas (Page 1 of 5)

Despite the Ruins Around Us

December 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our grandsons are five months old today. Elliott (left) has two bottom teeth now and weighs in at a whopping 16 pounds, while Samuel (right) is maintaining his one pound deficit at 15. Samuel’s hair, when the light hits it just right, looks like a Mohawk. Elliott is working hard on a way to shove his entire fist into his mouth. And they’re both laughing and giggling or making other happy noises almost all the time. What a delight! These boys continue to bring me so much joy!

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent a Christmas card to his parents from his cell at Tegel Prison in Berlin on November 28, 1943. The front of the card pictured this above nativity scene painted by Albrecht Altdorfer in 1513. In the card, Bonhoeffer says this is his favorite depiction of the nativity:

“One sees the holy family huddled around the manger amidst the rubble of a collapsed house. This is really contemporary.”

At the time, this painting was 430 years old. I’m sure it reminded Bonhoeffer of the destruction in his own country, the bombed out houses and buildings in his own hometown. This picture could have been painted almost anywhere in Europe in the middle of World War II. And what Bonhoeffer wrote about it during Advent 1943 could have been written today during Advent 2025:

“The celebration of Advent is only possible to those troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. We can and should celebrate Christmas despite the ruins around us. In fact, we must do this even more intensely now.”

Lord, come quickly.
Allan

Looking and Waiting

December 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The Dallas Stars finally unveiled their brand new alternate sweater in Friday’s win over Utah and wore the new/old uniform again in Sunday’s rout of the Ottawa Senators. And they look so great. The design is almost an exact replica of the uniform the Stars wore during their Stanley Cup runs in the late ’90s and early 2000s and, by far, my favorite Stars look. There’s more black than green in this re-imagined version, and there’s no gold outline, no gold anywhere. But, man, I love the unique look of that sweater, the big and bold Lone Star feel to the whole thing. It goes very well with the way the team is playing right now.

If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for me, they’re selling these things.

Check out the release video here, if not for Razor’s narration, for the sight of a gracefully-aged Brett Hull rockin’ the new sweater in front of an empty net. Is his foot in the crease?

“My eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the nations and for glory to your people Israel.” ~Luke 2:30-32

The old man Simeon is looking at a baby, but he sees salvation from God. Anna is gazing at an infant, but she sees God’s deliverance.

“She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” ~Luke 2:38

You know why they saw it? You know why they recognized it? Because they were looking for it. The Scripture says they were waiting for the promised consolation, they were looking forward to the promised redemption. Anticipating it. Expecting it. Laying awake at night like a little kid on Christmas Eve. I can’t sleep because I can’t wait. It’s all I’m thinking about. Longing and yearning.

That’s Christian hope.

Our Christian hope is not wishful thinking. It’s a confident leaning, or even leaping, into the promise of God that he will one day make all things right. Something has happened that has changed our lives and redirected our destinies. Something has happened that changes everything. The holy Son of God came to this earth in our flesh and blood. He came! He did!

And he’s coming again. He is! He will! That’s the hope we’ve been given. That’s the hope we have.

And it’s real. Hope is real. Hope does not ignore anxiety and doubt and fear, it doesn’t ignore the bad stuff; it confronts it. Hope holds you steady in the face of the fear and anxiety and doubt by the conviction that truly great has happened and something even greater is going to happen again.

Hope waits for his coming. But it waits in a certain way.

Luke describes Simeon as righteous. He was living in peace with our God and with his neighbors. He was seeking the welfare of others. He was acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. The Bible also says Simeon was devout. He was devoted to our God, he was committed to tackling the tasks the Lord had given him in a way to honor God. Anna is also righteous and devout. She’s described as worshiping and fasting and praying. Both of them are at home with God’s people in God’s house and being led by God’s Spirit.

Waiting and looking.

There were others at the temple that day who did not see God’s salvation in the holy infant. They hadn’t been hopefully longing for it. They hadn’t been waiting and looking. Maybe they were just going through the motions. Maybe they were just in maintenance mode. They were at the temple when they had to be. They prayed to God and read his Word when they remembered to. They spent most of their time at work, chasing their career. They worried about getting rich, or just breaking even. They were overly-consumed with parenting their children or improving their house. Or maybe they were too occupied with what it takes to just get through the end of each day.

At the end of Luke 19, Jesus weeps over the people who missed it: “You did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:44).

What are you waiting for in your life because of Jesus? Something out of the ordinary is in store for you. What do you see? Can you see the darkness in your circumstance being turned to light? Can you see the despair in your situation being turned to joy? Can you see the boring and mundane parts of your life being filled with excitement and purpose for our God and his salvation mission? The reality of what’s coming for you–better, who is coming for you–should compel you to a deeper devotion to God. And a life lived every hour of every day in breathless anticipation of his promises for you coming true.

Let us adopt the attitude of Jacob who prayed, “I look for your deliverance, O Lord” (Genesis 49:18). Let us commit to the way of the psalmist who sang, “I wait for your salvation, O Lord, and I follow your commands” (Psalm 119:166). Don’t miss it. Don’t be preoccupied with something else. Don’t be distracted by less important things and miss it.

Let us live like Simeon and Anna. Looking and waiting.

Peace,
Allan

Lights from a Limo

December 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Both the younger girls and our sons-in-law were in Midland for the  long holiday weekend to observe the Stanglin family Christmas traditions. We brought our daughters up decorating the tree on a certain day, watching certain Christmas movies, drinking egg nog and Dr Pepper at certain times, and those things naturally evolve into traditions we’ve done our best to keep. But I’ve only realized recently that we’ve raised three strict legalists! These girls are pretty hard core when it comes to our Christmas traditions–there’s no budging on any of it! We watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” the day after Thanksgiving, not Albert Finney’s “Scrooge.” We eat Mexican food after we decorate the tree, not on Christmas Eve. So I really didn’t know what to do for Sunday night.

On Christmas Eve we go out to Longhorn Steakhouse and then drive around the city looking at the best Christmas lights, before watching “Scrooge,” eating popcorn and drinking the Dr Pepper Nog, opening the new pajamas, and reading “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” I’m telling you, it’s a production. There’s a silly Stanglin family dance that happens after the movie, too, but I’m not detailing any of that here.

Well, this is the first time we’ve had seven people to accommodate. We can’t fit seven people in any one of our cars and we can’t take two cars to look at lights–that won’t work. We thought about borrowing a church van and then quickly remembered what our church vans are like. So what do we do?

We surprised the whole family with a limousine!

It was worth the price as soon as we opened the front door and everybody saw it, idling in front of our house, waiting to escort us on our Christmas Eve adventure. Those first two or three minutes were awesome! We took the pics, piled in, plugged in the traditional Stanglin family Christmas CD, and laughed and sang all the way to Longhorn Steakhouse. We pretended to be celebrities. Somebody made a prom joke. After we ordered, we watched the Dolphins drive the length of the field and kick the game-winning field goal against the Cowboys on Collin’s phone (yes!), ate a fantastic meal together, and then rode all over Midland looking at the lights.

It feels like a one-time thing. I need to iterate here in writing that it was definitely a one-time thing. This was a special memory, not the start of a new tradition. By this time next year, surely we’ll have a new church van.

Peace,

Allan

Advice versus News

December 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There’s a difference between advice and news. Advice is counsel about what you should do. News is a report about what’s already been done. Advice tells you to make something happen. News tells you something has already happened. Advice says you need to act. News says somebody else has already acted.

Let’s say there’s an invading army coming to town. What the town needs is military advice. We need advisors. We need someone to explain to us: okay, the trench works go there and the troops need to be positioned here, you need to put snipers up there and move the tanks down here. You need to do those things to be saved.

But what if a great and powerful King intercepts the invading army and destroys it? What does the town need then? We don’t need advisors, we need messengers. And the Greek word for messengers is angelos. Angels. And the messengers don’t say, “Here’s what you need to do.” They say, “We bring you good news of great joy that’s for all the people! Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you! He is Christ, the Lord!”

In other words, stop running, stop hiding, stop building fortresses and stockpiling weapons. Stop trying to save yourself. The King has already done it! The King has come now and you are saved!

Something has happened. Something has been done. And it totally changes everything.

Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace to all people!

Peace,

Allan

Love at Advent

December 19, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This Sunday is the fourth and final Sunday of the Advent season. This is the liturgy we are using at GCR to acknowledge the event and light the fourth candle, the candle representing love. Please use these readings and passages during this week to bolster your time with the Lord in Word and Prayer. Feel free to use this at your own church or small group this Sunday.

When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, announcing God’s plan for her to conceive and give birth to the Messiah, Mary said to the angel, “How can this be?” And yet, only a few months later, Mary sings praise to the Lord as she holds his salvation in her arms.

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me–holy is his name!
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
~ Luke 1:46-50

We, like Mary, hear God’s call to participate in making God’s plan for our salvation a reality. We are gracious recipients of God’s gifts and his great love that transforms us into bearers of the Good News. As the apostle reminds us in 1 John 4:

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
~ 1 John 4:9-11

Congregation: We wait as people who have encountered our God’s divine love that disrupts the status quo and ushers us into abundant life, together, marked by mutual love and peace.

We light this candle as a reminder of the love of Christ that transforms us. May his love grow within us, changing us into bold proclaimers of God’s salvation with our voices and our lives. Amen.

Light from Somewhere Else

December 15, 2023 / / 1 Comment

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
~ Isaiah 9:2

This is a very well known Christmas text. It’s a famous text that speaks to the coming of the Christ. And it describes the conditions the Christ is coming into as darkness. People walking in darkness. People living in the land of darkness. And we read this a lot at Christmas, but we don’t ever read the verses right before it. The four verses right before it tell us why the world is so plunged in darkness.

“When people tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law! And to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, they have no light of dawn! Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. They will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” ~Isaiah 8:19-22

People know they need help, but they’re looking for it in all the wrong places. They’re looking to the earth, they’re looking to themselves for wisdom and salvation. They’re looking to superstitions, they’re looking to their king, they’re looking to the culture — they’re looking to themselves.

Yes, we’re living in darkness. Yes, things are really messed up. But we can fix it ourselves. Yes, there’s war and violence and injustice and racism. But if we’ll all just love each other, we can fix it. Yes, there’s poverty and hunger and greed and lust. But if we’ll all just give to the right organizations, we can change it. Yes, there’s broken lives and broken hearts and broken relationships; there’s twisted bodies and warped minds and institutional vileness all around us. But if we’ll just vote for the right people, if we’ll just pass the right laws, if we’ll just use the right technology, we can overcome it.

The message from the Hallmark movies, the holiday music, the Coke commercials, the ad agencies, the billboards, and the Facebook posts is that we have it within us. The love and goodwill that exists inside each of us is enough to make the world a place of unity and peace. In other words, we have the light inside us. And if we just work together, we can eradicate the darkness. If we’ll all come together, we can overcome poverty and injustice, violence and evil — sin. With what’s inside us, we can build a world of love, joy, and peace.

Really? Can we?

We can’t save ourselves. Maybe you’ve noticed. We’ve been trying for centuries. We are completely unable to save ourselves. In fact, believing that we can save ourselves — that education or party politics or hard work or some system or ideology  can save us — that’s only led to more darkness!

See, the Christmas message gives us a very realistic way of looking at life. At its core, Christmas is very unsentimental. It’s not mushy or fantasy. Christmas is not, “Cheer up! If we all pull together, we can make the world a better place!” Christmas is not optimistic thinking like, “We can fix the whole world if we try really hard.”

The heart of Christmas is this: things are really terrible and we cannot heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark. Everywhere. Nevertheless, there is great hope. On those living in deep darkness, a light has dawned!

It’s not, “A great light has sprung up from the world!” It’s not, “The people have finally produced the light!” It’s, “ON the people a light has dawned!” It’s, “ON the world a light has come!” The light has come from outside us. It had to. The hope comes from outside the world. There was never any other way. And that salvation light is Christ Jesus. That light is the promised Messiah, the holy Son of God!

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it… The true light that gives light to every person was coming into the world.” ~John 1:5-9

The true light was coming. The eternal light that gives life to all people has come. The brightest light that shines in the darkness and conquers the darkness, the light from above, the light from outside us has come!

How? When?

“To us a child is born. To us a Son is given.”

Peace,

Allan

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