A light has dawned.
Some thoughts as we head into Christmas.
I’ve always liked Christmas decorations. Ever since I was a child watching our neighbors put out their eight reindeer — and Rudolph — to kick off the holiday season, I’ve been enthralled with them. Classy icicle lights, festive multi-colored bulbs, inflatable Santas and giant Christmas trees, I love them all. When I was a teen, a house down the block had a manger scene guarded by a wooden soldier while Santa kept watch over the baby Jesus. It was tacky, and it was great.
When Kelly and I bought our house six years ago, I was excited to finally have a home of my own to festoon with lights, inflatable decorations and animatronic reindeer. I bought some outdoor lights and, the day after Thanksgiving, I got to work turning our home into what I hoped would be a winter wonderland. After about two hours, in which I managed to attach about one foot of lights to our shingles before tossing my light-hanging pole into the bushes and screaming obscenities, I decided it might be better for my health to just enjoy the neighbors’ lights.
This year, whether due to a warm spell we had in November or just because they had extra time on their hands due to the pandemic, it seems like more of our neighbors and fellow residents put up Christmas lights than usually do. I started noticing them just before Thanksgiving, a Christmas tree in the window at one home, some bulbs hanging from the gutters at another. By the first of December, nearly every stretch of road around our home had several houses with bright lights blazing.
While I’ve always enjoyed Christmas lights, I don’t know if it was until this year that I truly began to appreciate them.
The time change in October is always hard, but this year it was more difficult than usual. The plunge into early darkness happened as we were nearing our seventh month of the pandemic. While the early days had been the most terrifying, I think the last few months have been the most difficult. We’re weary of living in constant suspense and trepidation; whatever novelty came with adapting to this “new normal” has worn into a daily slog. After a summer where cases were low and my wife and I were able to work from home while our kids were at a daycare summer camp, we found ourselves trying to find a new work rhythm while our son did his third grade work from home. Couple that with the stress of the election, another round of lockdowns and the sinking realization that the holidays were going to be impacted by this pandemic, and it’s no wonder why the stress and depression that had been at bay through the summer came rushing back in. The sun setting at 5:30 p.m. felt like an extra kick in the ribs.
But the Christmas lights made it easier. I began looking forward to those drives to pick my daughter up from daycare at the end of the day, the dark suburban streets bathed in light and color as holiday music poured from my stereo. Sometimes, I’d drive down side streets where I knew there were displays I particularly liked and just take my time. The lights beautified the dark streets, but they also reminded me that there was still hope, joy and magic in the world. I never realized how nice it is for our icy, cold neighborhoods to be filled with light during the darkest time of the year.
And, as a result, I think this has been the first Christmas season in years where I’ve been able to stop and enjoy it. One of the side benefits of having everything cancelled is that there’s been a lot less rushing. We’re not constantly leaving home to head out to a family obligation, church event, Christmas party or last-minute errand. With theaters largely closed and our film critics society’s voting postponed until March, I’m not rushing through screeners. For the first year in four, I’m not spending this season balancing classwork and final papers on top of all the other busyness. Instead, we’ve been home, watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music, eating Christmas cookies and taking it just a bit slower (but it’s still flown by). As a result, there have been days where the pandemic hasn’t dominated our thoughts and this year has, somehow, had moments where it’s felt like a somewhat normal Christmas.
One of the things I’ve been trying to discipline myself to do is take time each day for some Advent reading. I’ve been going through David Mathis’ devotional The Christmas We Didn’t Expect, and doing daily scripture reading and prayers. Taking this time to be still, read, meditate and pray has had an effect similar to the one that the neighborhood Christmas lights has had. It’s caused me to reflect on what we celebrate at this time of year and the hope it gives us, and it serves as a reminder that in these times of darkness and uncertainty, there is still beauty, joy and hope in the world. We are not alone.
In Isaiah 9:2, it says “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
There’s more to the passage that we usually read at Christmas time, but my eyes have often just stopped after this verse. We’re nearing the end of a particularly dark and bleak year for many people. And our faith tells us that there’s an answer to this. The poor will inherit a kingdom. Those who mourn will be comforted. The meek will inherit the earth. Christmas is the time we take to celebrate the birth of those promises, the arrival into the world of the One who made them. Christmas doesn’t shy away from the darkness of the world — indeed, the Gospel accounts of Christ’s birth are filled with arduous journeys, potentially shameful revelations, non-ideal birth conditions and a horrific slaughter — but it does promise that the darkness doesn’t have the final word. A light has dawned on those of us living in the land of deep darkness.
There’s a lot of talk about 2020 being a “dumpster fire” of a year, and I’m not going to argue against that. And yet, it seems every December, we find ourselves stretched to our breaking points. The days are dark and cold. We’re stressed as we try to fulfill every obligation. Our wallets are stretched and empty. Family tensions are high. And, as the end of the year approaches, we’re reminded of all we didn’t accomplish. And I wonder if God, in his providence, allows for that darkness to creep in just a little more throughout the month so that the light of Christmas will shine a bit brighter.
There is hope at the end of this dark month. There is joy, even at the end of this hard year. I hope you’re able to take some time to enjoy it this Christmas.
Merry Christmas, everyone. We’ll be back with one more newsletter next week just before the end of the year. I hope you enjoy your holidays!
The Digest
Where you can find my work online
The Croods: A New Age review: Your kids are going to be home for awhile and they won’t have school to keep them busy for a few weeks. And once they’ve gone through all their presents and watched Soul and Wonder Woman 1984 a few times, you’re going to need another distraction. Thankfully, The Croods: A New Age, the sequel to the 2013 Dreamworks animated film, just came out on VOD. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s colorful, energetic and fun. Nicolas Cage and Peter Dinklage are very funny together, and the creature design is pretty clever. Kids will enjoy it; parents will get a few laughs, too. Review at BHM Pop Culture.
We’re Watching Here - Mank: Perry and I got together to record another episode of our movie podcast, and we talked all about David Fincher’s new Netflix film, Mank. I didn’t get a chance to write a review of this one, so it was fun to have a place to talk about a movie I quite enjoy. We come back around to the fact that while Mank isn’t particularly deep or groundbreaking, it’s a joy to watch for movie nerds and Fincher fans. We have one more episode that will come next week to close out the year, and I’m already excited about some of the things we’re planning for the podcast in 2021. Available on Stitcher, Spotify, iTunes, etc.
Chrisicisms
The pop culture I’m enjoying
The Flight Attendant (HBO Max): This HBO Max thriller is the television equivalent of a beach read; it’s light, fast-paced, fun and has just enough twists to keep you invested. Kailey Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) is really solid as Cassie, a party-loving, hard-drinking flight attendant who wakes up next to a corpse after a one night stand in Bangkok. I’m about halfway through the season (it was just renewed for a second) and thoroughly enjoying the deft mix of suspense, humor and drama. There’s a lot of globe-hopping fun, and I appreciate how deftly Cuoco creates a character who’s her own worse enemy, constantly making her situation worse by following her own bad impulses. I’m eager to see where this season leads.
The Stand (CBS All Access): Stephen King’s The Stand is one of my favorite novels, an epic bit of fantasy and horror that, at more than 1,000 pages, is one of his richest works, with some of his most memorable characters (and, let’s just admit it: one of his worst endings). It was adapted, to mixed acclaim, into a miniseries in the 1990s but a remake has floundered for years. This CBS All Access adaptation, of which I’ve seen the first of nine, is a mixed bag. There are decisions I like, such as the casting of James Marsden as Stu Redman and Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, and the show’s vibe is admirably gruesome. But it also hacks up and rearranges King’s narrative in a way that does its momentum no favors, and it feels frustratingly small in places. The Stand is a story that deserves an epic treatment on a platform like HBO; instead, this feels like a standard broadcast serial. And if it whiffs the easiest part, which is the plague and its aftermath, I don’t know how it’s going to handle the story’s eventual shift into the supernatural. There’s enough to keep me returning, but I’m feeling nervous.
The Mandalorian (Disney+): The joy of watching Dave Filoni and John Favreau’s show is the way it both uses and recontextualizes Star Wars iconography to create the type of stories fans of the saga have wanted to see for years in a way they never expected. So this week had TIE Fighters attacking our heroes in a space bottle, evil super-droids pummeling our hero, and a lightsaber fight just as thrilling as anything the movies have given us. It looked like it was going to end on quite a cliffhanger, before the show gave fans what is arguably its coolest and most noteworthy brush with the film series and then left things in a place where season three could go anywhere. And then, after the credits, they announced one more surprise, a Boba Fett show coming next year. Listen, Disney is going to cram its properties down our throats on Disney+ for the next few years. And while Marvel has enough beloved characters and different avenues to keep this going forever, I worry that the Star Wars well might feel pretty tapped out pretty quickly. But I’ll happily let them try to prove me wrong. The Mandalorian is the most fun thing to come from Star Wars in nearly 40 years; I’m happy to keep exploring the other nooks and crannies of this galaxy for awhile.
Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson: Peterson is that rarity: a singer whose music is both explicitly Christian...and good. His thoughtful, honest lyrics have brought me back to sanity many times. His book is part how-to and part memoir, detailing his career as a singer-songwriter and novelist, but also musing on the creative life, appreciating the goodness of art and culture, and the perils of being a Christian artist. Peterson has a light touch as a writer; he appreciates the awe but also doesn’t take himself too seriously. And his writing is deeply Christian without turning the book into a devotional or theology tome. An essential for any person of faith who is also inclined to create.