Beginnings and Endings

Marcia Lee Laycock will celebrate Christmas in Central Alberta Canada, with her husband, three daughters, two sons in law, two golden retrievers and a six toed cat. She wishes you and yours all the blessings of our Saviour through this joyous season and beyond into 2010.


I was shopping yesterday, picking up the last of the items on my list for Christmas. I told the woman at the counter I was finished. “That’s it,” I said. “I’m done.” Then my cell phone rang. It was my daughter, asking to be picked up from school. As I drove, I mentally went down the girls’ wish lists and I realized I’d forgotten something. Laura still had some shopping to do too, so we went back to the same store. (The 50% off sign is a big draw in our family!)

The clerk smiled pleasantly. “I thought you were done.” I grinned and nodded. “So did I.” It seems we’re never done. There’s always another gift to get, another item to buy for the Christmas dinner, another invitation to give out for that party before the 25th. Then, all of a sudden, it’s over. The day is past, the gifts are put away, the tree is tossed out or packed away. Then the plans begin for New Year’s – more invitations to give and receive, more food to buy. We’re never done.

I imagine Mary, like most women who give birth, breathed a deep sigh of relief when Jesus was born. After the long nine-month wait, at last it was finished. But the birth of Christ, as no other, was not an end but a beginning. It was a new beginning for us all, a new agreement between man and God. It took thirty-some years to bring the plan into fulfillment, but there was no doubt it would come to be. The end was in sight from the moment of Christ’s birth. He was the baby who came to die, and His death, like His birth, was like no other.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30), He wasn’t referring to just the span of thirty years he spent on earth. He was referring to the plan set in motion from eternity past – the plan to bring all of mankind into right relationship with God. His part was done, once and for all, as He took the sin of mankind on Himself and removed the barrier between human beings and God. His part was done, but our part was just beginning.

The birth and death of Jesus gave us all the chance to say yes to Him, to discover and develop a relationship with Him, and to tell others about Him. His birth gave us all life, His death gave us all forgiveness, and His resurrection gave us all purpose. When we accept that, we will never be done, neither in growing like Him, nor in receiving and dispensing His love. The story is going to go on forever.

That’s a reason to celebrate! So let the carols ring and the feasting never end. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given...And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Read More

Remembering that Night

Marcia Laycock is an award-winning author who writes from central Alberta Canada. Her devotional book, Spur of the Moment is now available. Visit her website - http://www.vinemarc.com/

One of my most cherished memories has to do with a Christmas project in grade school. I worked hard on it, along with the rest of my class, each of us making one character or animal depicting the nativity scene. Using wire frames and paper slathered in paste, we shaped wise men and shepherds, the baby Jesus and his parents and various animals. I picked a camel.

It seemed like an easy project until I got to the legs. I had trouble with the legs. They wouldn’t support the heavy wire, glue and paper body. Every time I propped it up, it fell down. So I took the legs off and made a camel lying down. I thought it was wonderful and brought it proudly to my mother. She oohed and aahed, of course, then asked, “What is it, a duck?”

I was crushed, but eventually we both fell into fits of giggles that lasted....well, let me see, it’s been about forty years. Perhaps because my mother felt guilty for crushing my budding artistic talents, she put that camel under our tree every Christmas, even when I groaned in protest. At some point during the season, she’d say, “Do you remember that day...?” and we’d giggle again.

Many years after that day, my husband and I began another tradition with our children – an evening drive around town to look at the lights and decorations. On one such wintry night, as our van turned into a snow globe moving slowly through huge fluffy snowflakes, my husband decided to find some Christmas music on the radio, to help set the mood. He flipped the dial from station to station and came to rest on CBC, Canada's national station.

A carol was just ending. Then a familiar voice filled our van as Alan Maitland, a well-known Canadian broadcaster, began a recitation of The Gift of The Magi, that wonderful story of giving from the heart. Our girls leaned forward to listen. An unusual stillness descended as the poignant story unfolded. The real meaning of Christmas engulfed us as we listened and drove through the falling snow and twinkling lights. It was a night we will all remember, perhaps even as long as forty years, because one of us always mentions it. Someone, at some point in the season, says, “Do you remember that night...?”

That’s the point of Christmas, the reason for its existence. It is a time when we should all say to one another, “Remember....” Remember the long trek to Bethlehem. Remember the star and those men from the East who followed it. Remember the humble place where the Savior was born. Remember the angels announcing the arrival of Joy and Peace on Earth. Remember why He came.

Although none of us were there, it is very much our story, our tradition, our unique moment. The story belongs to us all because His birth was God’s gift to us all, as the angels announced, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born TO YOU; he is Christ, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11, capitals mine)

The true meaning of Christmas lies in the remembrance of that birth. As we get caught up in the flurry of the season, it would be well to say to one another, “Do you remember that night...?”

Read More