Good Tuesday morning! Happy line I heard this morning, "It ends up being sweeter than a Sandra Bullock movie." Okay, we'll let that one settle in for a bit and get on with the devotional. People don't mention Dec. 7 much any more, but this was what President Franklin Roosevelt called a day which will live in infamy. Of course, our generation has 9/11, but a couple of generations ago our grandparents had a day they could not easily forget. How did they celebrate Christmas on Dec 25, 1941? The nation faced war on two fronts as the few days following Dec. 7th became a kind of war declaration party for those nations not already occupied by the Axis powers. Men and women volunteered for service in the armed forces and quite a few service personnel were coming home to be buried. We have two limited wars in our time, but the country after Pearl Harbor faced a general mobilization. Millions of young men and women went to war directly, and the country as a whole supported the war by going to work in factories and munitions plants, in some cases for the first time. 9/11 didn't produce quite the same thing. The nation did go to war, but on a very limited basis. It has been said that a smaller percentage of the population has borne the cost of this war than at any other time in our history. Many people here in the U.S. stopped paying attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan some time ago. Christmas always brings it back for some of us. I celebrated Christmas of 1983 in Izmir, Turkey.
Christmas in a mostly Islamic country is a very low-key affair for those Christians living there. We celebrated on the ship or at the USO club, not in the town streets. Here at home, Christmas is a huge event all over the country. In the Middle East or Afghanistan the celebration is kept quiet mostly. Many of the guys got pretty drunk, not to dishonor the holiday I suspect, but because Christmas so far away from home just plain hurt. Christmas is not always the best of times for everyone. The social celebrations going on all around can really drive home the loneliness of a person alone. The young men and women serving far overseas can feel especially far from home on Christmas. Christmas at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 was probably quiet and reserved. The only way to ease the pain of many is to focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas - the birth of Jesus. Some folks will need help with this; it is easy to wallow in our own pain at such a time as this. All of us have the inclination to hold a pity party with me, myself and I. This should give us an insight into those hearts wallowing in self-pity without the hope we have in Christ Jesus. The Christmas message today is a bit of a downer to use an old-fashioned term. That is good though, not everyone will celebrate Christmas this year and a little insight into their pain might help us to remember them in prayer and action.
Have a thoughtful Christmas today,
Bucky
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