Christmas Julotta

We hauled our reluctant carcasses out of our beds in the chill predawn gloom, collecting ourselves into two vehicles and then making our way in the still morning darkness along deserted and desolate roads to the church on today's Christmas morn.

It was at the church where we found we were not alone. The darkness and the early hour were not obstacles to all of these families, old and young alike, coming together, unopened presents, bulging stockings and decorated trees abandoned at home, gathering at the church for "Julotta."

Pronounced something like "Yolanda," it is a traditional Swedish Baptist Christmas morning church service. It has been held every year since the church was originally built out of prairie sod some 137 years ago, a tradition brought over with the original immigrants from Europe.

So here we are, white melting pot Americans with no family or cultural ties to Swedish Baptists, participating in an old traditional cultural ritual with no real reason to, except that we have adopted it.

It is about the singing, the stories, the "Tea Rings" (strange little things, very traditional, very tasty), the gosh-awful-presents-must-wait hour of the day, but most of all, it is about the gathering. On one of the most significant days in the life of the church, its members gather, to be together, to share the joy together. To remember together that our God came to earth on a special night, on a special day, just for us, so that we could be together, not just with each other, but so that we could be reconciled to him, so that we could be with him too. How wonderful is that.

Then we can all go home with our families and have our Christmas, open presents, take naps, have a big supper, whatever, because we started it out right. We did it together. I think that is neat. Thank you God, it is all about you, and we know it.

With all of the secularization and commercialization of Christmas and all of the hubbub, chatter, noise and confusion that goes on at Christmas time around and about Christmas and the meaning of Christmas, Christians never get confused, never. They do not.

Christmas is OUR holiday; we own it.

Our God, the creator of the universe, took the form of a man, as a baby, in order to save us from sin. Period; the end. The greatest story ever told, the only story that has ever mattered.

Peace to you and yours, have a blessed Christmas!