If you were to look closely at our Christmas lights this year, you will notice the peak has different lights than those above our Christmas tree. There is a reason for that.
While Colleen was away for a Mom's Conference to the States, she mentioned to me that she would like Christmas lights put up for when she returned. So, me being the proactive type, waited until Sunday, the day of her return, to go shopping for and put up the lights while the kids were napping.
Our beautiful kids, Ellianna, Jolen and Elkanon. 1 girl, 2 boys. We walked over to Home Hardware after church and I told the kids they could pick out their own string of lights (Kanon didnt' really pick, but the two older picked for him and he held them in the cart, so he could feel like he did the work of choosing). Here is where the problem started, besides the obvious procrastination that had been happening.
For those of you who know Colleen, she likes things to flow. An example of this: while I was a teacher in Ukraine, my students would play a game. Who dressed Mr. Johnson this morning. And without any difficulty, they had a 100% success rate of guessing (Is it called guessing if you are always right?). They could tell by how I dressed each day if I picked out my clothes or if Colleen did. Which was pretty amazing as I only had 2 different pairs of pants, 4 dress shirts and 6 or so ties. And, I would even take note of what Colleen picked for me the previous week and wear it and they still would know I dressed myself that morning.
So, the conundrum of picking lights for Christmas that reflect us as a Family, the randomness of Dad, the cohesiveness of Mom and the kids who are somewhere in there too. The solution was to let them pick out their own string of lights and then figure out how to make them look good.
Ellianna, as a girly girl, picked pink and purple, Jolen as a boy naturally picked lights that did not match being red, green, blue and purple. Kanon, by default got whatever the kids picked which, through some steering from their Father, ended up being the same as Jolen's.
I put the kids down for naps and went outside to tackle the complex problem. Thankfully, the two strings stretched the peak and the pink and purple lights covered our living room and Colleen didn't even notice the lights were different when she got home, and she liked them! Being proud of myself, I pointed the differences out to Colleen and she mentioned that she would have simply made all the kids agree on one set of lights and that would be the end of it. Had we done that, the lights would have looked good too.
Now onto our lesson. A couple of things. When I look at our lights, I see our children.
Our two little men and beautiful daughter who is growing up so fast (she got her ears pierced this week!). Yet, as you look at our lights on our house, it works. There is diversity, pink and purple with blue, red, green and purple, yet it is one cohesive unit. When I look at the Family of God. We are all diverse. Each part has it's own job, where one is not more important that the other. Simply being a Youth Pastor, does not make me more important in the lives of Youth than their teachers, fellow church members or even the parents. Our board Chairman shared at our last board meeting that research has been showing it takes a 5:1 ratio to raise a teenager. That is a 5 adult to 1 teen (not including parents) and who these 5 adults are goes greatly into shaping their future. Being a Youth Pastor can be one of those 5, but only a small part. It is not more important than their employer, teacher, coach etc. We need to be individuals who impact in a cohesive way. Not only with our teens, but our children, fellow adults, even...the elderly.
The other thing I was taught was: What if we would have done the Christmas lights Colleen's way? Would they have been better? Worse? Not really, they would have looked good and reflected us as a family, one cohesive unit who are all named Johnson. Is it OK if the church doesn't do things they way you want them to? Is it OK if someone drinks Tim Horton's coffee over McDonald's (a very difficult question as McDonald's is much Superior). Is it OK if someone parents different than you? What if someone believes differently than you. A few examples of difficult theologies I disagree with. -"The initial evidence of the baptism in
the Holy Spirit is speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. This experience is
distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth." Taken from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada or "Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper." Taken from the Canadian National Baptist Convention.
The question arises from both lessons: Are we Unified in Christ. Is Jesus Shining through us in a way that is not robotic, but Christ in Us - Individuals and a peoples called by God.
