Celebrating God’s gifts of family and the Sabbath
December 18, 2024 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Charles Evans
If I were to think of one time of year when happiness seems to shoot through the roof, when families lay their differences aside, when neighbors are more neighborly and we all seem to go out of our way to help, the season of Christmas would be that time of year.
Yet, even to the casual observer, it is clear that the season has become largely commercialized and motivations for doing good have become suspect, to say the least. But I can’t deny the delight I derive when family members visit from other parishes or countries to which they have migrated to work and establish their own family chapters. I can’t deny the thrill and sometimes shrills of stories shared, the excitement gained from grueling games as we huddle together in the crammed living and dining rooms, and the eventual resort to our makeshift beds as space is made for everyone. I do believe that whatever your religious convictions are, there’s no denying the joy of family togetherness. This book of families not only makes a great read but is one that we all get to contribute to as well.
I wonder: Is it Christmas that is significant, or is it the family and friends that we share it with? I really believe that it is the latter, because the fond memories of my childhood are not confined to this time of year. I fondly remember the fun days we had when it rained for long spells and we would be gathered inside playing games and singing our favorite songs. What made it fun? Family.
God’s Gift of Family and Fellowship
You may now wonder what God had in mind when He established the family. He created us with the capacity to experience happiness and joy, emotions that are evoked whenever the family gets together in harmonious activity. None of this is by chance, but is consistent with the thought that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). As God Himself declares in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Our God is a God of relationships, and we were made like Him (cf. Gen. 1:26).
I recall when I just became a Seventh-day Adventist. It was such a special time for me. My best sleep of the week was on a Friday night. The worship with my mother was super-special. By the time I became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I was the last of eight siblings left at home—not all my siblings are Adventists. My mother was baptized into membership in 1981, and I followed in 1982. I have two other siblings who are Adventists, and the others belong to another faith. Our father, my mother’s first husband, died before I (the youngest living child) got to know him.
I recall the very first time I entered an Seventh-day Adventist sanctuary. It felt like stepping into another world; so serene, so awesome, the presence of God was so real. Almost any Sabbath I could expect, as a young member of the church, to have lunch with a family from church. My mother and I would walk four to five miles to church each Sabbath morning. But you know what, we’d sometimes be the first to arrive some mornings. It really helped that we’d be invited home to lunch by someone each Sabbath.
Celebrating God’s Gift of Sabbath
Sabbath was established by God (Gen. 2:1-3), as was the family (verse 24). But what did God have in mind when He fashioned them? Is it possible that the excitement and delight that we have come to associate with Christmas are the very things He planned for us to associate with the family and with Sabbath? I’m not attacking Christmas—I’m only wishing that our family life and Sabbath experiences could be a lot more delightful than we currently know them to be, much like the joys of Christmas.
It all comes down to the choices we make. Why not make every Sabbath a time of sharing, a time of togetherness, a time of excitement as we prepare—much like we do for Christmas? I remember well how we’d tidy up around the house; places that hadn’t been cleaned for the whole year got cleaned for Christmas. Houses would be painted, and even trees and stones would get whitewashed. Let’s go that extra mile each Sabbath.
Sure enough, many prepare for and spend Sabbath in special ways, but I can’t quite say that it reaches the scale of intense excitement that Christmas generates—even among Sabbathkeepers. I wonder how God must feel about the way we observe Sabbath. How must He feel that some who profess faith in Him don’t even acknowledge the sanctity of Sabbath? It is up to us to make Sabbaths extra special and joyous. If many do it for Christmas, a human tradition, certainly we can do it for the Sabbath, a God-instituted sanctuary in time.
This Christmas I recommend for every family the daily joy of Sabbath preparation and its weekly thrill of celebrating on the seventh day God’s creation of the world and His re-creative work within us as individuals.
Charles Evans is an assistant professor in the College of Business at Northern Caribbean University.