Lucia & Christmas

I'm sitting here in our apartment on December 13. It's a sunny day in Calgary, the last bit of snow is slowly melting away. I'm watching Swedish web tv. Today is a traditional day in Sweden. It's Lucia. For those of you who don't know what Lucia is I'll briefly explain. Lucia is a day which is celebrated at every school, every church, every workplace in Sweden. It stems back from Italy and the 3rd century. Tradition says that there was a young women who decided that she would never get married but dedicate her life to God entirely. However as she emerged into a beautiful young lady her mother promised her away to a man. This made the young lady, named Lucia, very sad. She started praying to God that He would save her from getting married and somehow change her mother's mind. Shortly after Lucia's mother got sick. Lucia got a revelation from God on how to heal her. God used Lucia to heal her mother which led her mother to promise her that she wouldn't have to get married. This did, however, not go over as well with the bridegroom who'd fallen in love with the beautiful Lucia's eyes. According to tradition, this led Lucia to rip out her eyes and send them to the bridegroom. The bridegroom then went to the emperor who decided to have Lucia arrested and tortured. She was later sentenced to death and died as a martyr.

Back in the day in Sweden it was thought that this was the longest and darkest night of the year. To hunt away the demons people would dress in white and carry a candle in their hand, Lucia wearing a crown with candles in it on her head. They would get up early in the morning, while it was still dark and walk and sing. Nowadays it's most common that kids dress up for this and have a "Lucia train". They sing and read poems. This is a greatly appreciated tradition in Sweden. Like I said, pretty much every work place and school in Sweden have some kind of Lucia celebration, often with school or kindergarten classes doing it.

Lucia and Christmas is something that makes me miss Sweden. I love going to the Christmas market in Myresjö (my home village), go to a 16th century church to listen to Christmas music, go out and skate on a quiet frozen lake, enjoy all the Christmas baking my mother does, go to church when it's decorate for Christmas and where time is given for reflection.

Christmas has always been a time of reflection for me. Time off school or off work. Typically in Sweden everyone's off from Dec. 23 - Jan. 2. There's a lot of time to spend with family, a lot of time to go for walks or for a car ride, to sit down and listen to each other, to value one another.

Christmas is clearly a time of giving. A time to celebrate the greatest gift of all time, God the Father's gift of his only Son, Jesus Christ to mankind. A gift to a hurting and needing humanity. A gift of forgiveness, a gift of escape from guilt and shame. A gift of new Life. A gift of Hope. A git of true peace. A gift of the truest and deepest kind of Love.
Let us all this Christmas make the choice of living in the Life we've been given by our Maker. The life of Christ. The life of giving. Let us focus not on how much we can get this Christmas but rather how we can give to others. How we help create positive memories for others who know Christmas as a holiday of hurt and abuse. Let us all take the time this time of the year to reflect on what, or rather WHO Christmas is all about...Christ. Christ and Christ alone. Let's follow His example and lay our life down for others starting today.

Speaking of life, I also want to take the opportunity to congratulate my sister Therese and her husband Jakob to the latest addition to their family, Sigge (pictured).