Wednesday, December 13, 2023
“Twelve Days…Yuck!”
Woohoo! It’s the “Twelve Days of Christmas!”
Yuck. Though I am a Christmas Geek, that song and all of its variations and arrangements is my least favorite of all the carols. The counting makes it worse, not because I’m bad with numbers, but because I’m good with numbers and I know how long it’s going to take when I hear the song’s tempo. I dislike the song enough to know that hearing it puts a dent in my day or changes my mood for the worse. Yuck.
This is not the real “Twelve Days.” The real “Twelve Days” don’t begin until after Christmas Day, which is when those pear-tree partridges emerge. Instead, this “Twelve Days” is a twelve-day countdown to Christmas, the culmination of lots of preparation, worry, and tireless acts of generosity and kindness that are rarely noticed. This may seem like a simple collection of problems, but for some people, this can be overwhelming.
It can be difficult to recognize that bad things might happen during a very joyful, loving, and faithful moment. For me, a bad thing is to hear that silly song and not be able to skip the song or change the station or selection. Others may be able to withstand the “Twelve Days” just fine, only succumbing to the half-burned-out lights that are already hung on the tree (that problem is a breeze for me). Neither of these are major problems, but they’re each enough to tip the boat over if we’re already taking on water.
When trouble occurs, it would seem like the Holiday Season would be the best time for it to occur because of all the good stuff that’s out there. However, we know that’s not true, don’t we? When trouble occurs during the Holiday Season it seems as though the trouble is magnified exponentially, creating a much bigger concern than it would during another time.
This is one reason why it’s so important to maintain as much Faith discipline as we can during the Holiday Season. Reading devotions, saying prayers, reading the Holy Scriptures, and attending worship are all valuable parts of a solution to our feelings of being overwhelmed or the troubles that always seem to surface this time of year. We may not be able to stop the unwanted surprises completely, but we can sure choose the degree to which they impact us.
We’ve got Twelve Days ahead of us. I’m hoping that after these Twelve Days are counted, I’m not trying to figure out what to do with twelve partridges in twelve pear trees. However, if this occurs, God will somehow use this, too, for God’s purpose, even if that means our next churchwide meal includes roasted partridge with rosemary, thyme, and a sauteed pear-mango glaze. That sounds much more appetizing than one more verse of the “Twelve Days”!
“Don’t fear, because I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, NRSV)