I like to think of the mind as the city center into which flow five major highways: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. It is by way of these thoroughfares that we experience life in all its complexity. It is by the senses that we learn, gain insights, and internalize all that is true and helpful for life.
If ever there was a truth that needed to be internalized in every way, it is the amazing story of a God who spoke all things into existence and continues to sustain creation with His breath, yet who loved His creation so much that He Himself came as a helpless baby to touch us at our point of need. When we weren't understanding the immensity of His love for His creation, He spoke His love in terms we could comprehend: the sound of a baby's cry on a cold night, the smell of a lowly, animal-filled stable, the rough texture of a feeding trough filled with coarse straw, the brightness of a new star in the dark night sky, and the taste of the Bread of Life to feed the souls of us all.
Since that night more than two millennia ago that divided time itself into B.C. (before) and A.D. (after), those whose lives have been changed by this baby boy have created dozens of symbols and traditions in their efforts to express an event both human and divine. All the senses have been called into play by the deep longing to share the very personal experiences of a cosmic and eternal change-point.
Light, warmth, belonging, satisfaction of deep un-nameable hungers, fresh and eternal life, spiritual pilgrimage, the divine gifts, the return of the Song of Life...all these need the ladder of symbolism to even begin to approach and express the depths of Redeeming Love!
Each of us has been the recipient of a rich heritage of traditions and symbols given by others so that we can experience and communicate to our children the unfathomable love of God—the God who came to walk with us, to touch us where we are broken, to feed us the true water and food of the Spirit, and to be His love made visible.
As we celebrate Christmas, let's use all the senses—every avenue we have—to embrace this amazing Story. And as we do, let's remember to always tell and retell the reason for every tradition, giving thanks for the reality we celebrate! Let's promise each other that every highway to the soul will never become a bypass.
Smell Christmas!
If all I could remember of Christmas were just the smells of the season, I would still be rich with memories.
The real cedar tree my grandfather cut in the Michigan woods and brought with fragrance into the old farmhouse.
The smells of cranberries simmering on the stove, Grandma’s bread baking in the oven, popcorn popping to string for the tree, spicy pumpkin pies cooling on the kitchen counter.
The fragrance of clean sheets and blankets from the cedar closets pulled tight up around my neck as I was tucked into bed to wait for far-away Christmas morning.
My daddy’s Old Spice and mother’s Max Factor powder as they held me on their laps to read the sweet story from Luke 2.
The warming smell of hickory logs burning in the pot-bellied stove that heated the seldom used “front room” through these special days of celebration.
The Sounds of Christmas
Music defines Christmas–not just the music of Christmas carols filling the house and the age-old story set to a hundred different tunes, but the music and rhythms of life:
The giggles and whispers of children keeping secrets.
The sound of bells coming from the Salvation Army bell ringers in front of the grocery store.
The crinkling sound of paper being folded around surprise packages.
The sound of carolers outside in the crisp winter night.
The music of the traffic in the streets rushing home with gifts.
The sound of the logs crackling in our kitchen fireplace and the hot bubbling of chili simmering on the stove.
Who can keep from humming along to this harmonious song of Life? This is one time when everything stops down for a magical moment to sing and retell the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” The Giver of the Music, after all, started the whole world singing this song at first with an angel chorus, and the Song will never be satisfied until all creation sings it at the greatest Homecoming this world—and the whole Cosmos—has ever known.
