Jingle?

Jingle?                                   

By John W. Vander Velden

Jingle, jingle, jingle, sounds of the season.  Some might think bells surround us.  We hear it in the music, “Jingle Bells”, and the sound of the few coins that remain in our pockets.  Santa’s sleigh has bells, or so I’m told.  Never seen it myself, but I don’t think their lying.  Bells decorate stores and homes.  It is a rare Christmas tree that doesn’t have at least one bell dangling from its branches.  December seems the month for which bell choirs practice all year.  And hopefully we hear the church bells as they ring in Christ’s birth.

Yes, the season seems filed with “bell” sounds and that’s great.  But we should not allow all the jingles to overshadow Christmas.  We should not allow the glitter and the noise to overpower the “Light”.  We should not allow all the “stuff”, we gather while shopping, to bury the child born in a manger.

Shouldn’t the jingle, jingle, jingle remind us of love, love for one another, and the love poured down from heaven.  For love is the real essence of the season.  In a world that races about, chasing the clanging of this or that, the faint pure tones calls to us.  For God so loved…!  Shouldn’t we love as well?  What are the bounds of love?  How far does love reach?  How great a price does it gladly pay?  Those are the questions we should hear in the bells.  So listen carefully to the bells, to the jingle, jingle, jingle, open your heart, let love in…let love out.  For God loved you enough to send his Son, a child born in a stable…born for you and born for me.  When ultimate love is the question…then Christmas is the absolute answer.

(291 words)                 12-16-2015