Holidays & Holy Days: The Grace of Sacred Days

By Edwin Leap

Regular readers of The Baptist Courier are familiar with physician-writer Edwin Leap. His columns have appeared in The Courier for years, most recently under the standing head of "Wholly Healthy," where he serves up a monthly take on health and wellness issues.
What latecomers to Leap's articles may not know, however, is that his writing interests

• Language: English
• Publisher: CourierPublishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781940645186

Book preview

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Holidays & Holy Days

By Edwin Leap, M.D.

Copyright 2014 Edwin Leap

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced in any form without permission in

writing from the author or publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-940645-17-9

Courier Publishing

100 Manly Street

Greenville, South Carolina 29601

864-232-8736

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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DeDication

This book is dedicated to my wife, Jan, and our children, Elijah, Seth, Elysa and Sam. And to all of our parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends who make every holiday a glimpse of eternal delights to come. And to all of the family, friends and descendents we have yet to know ...

Prologue

I never tire of certain days. For example, every Friday my family gets up in the morning, goes to the gym, has breakfast, and (some weeks) works at our church food bank. (We home-school, so we’re able to make it work for the kids.) I never, ever tire of that pattern. It is a delight, a high point of the week. After we’re done, we come home, sore and weary, and enter the weekend with a sigh of relief. In some ways, it’s more of a sabbath to us than Sunday. Baptist Sundays can be so busy!

Those delightful Fridays carry with them a comforting repetition, a predictable joy and comfort. They are, in a way, holidays. And any day that I can spend with my wife and children is, to me, a holy day.

All holidays are like that, I suppose. We look forward to them year after year. In fact, our expectations are so high that sometimes we wring the joy right out of them because, for all that we love consistency, even holidays change and morph over time. Families add members and lose some. Geography changes with jobs, and traditions evolve as recipes are lost or ingredients added. But if we pause to reflect, we’ll often see that the same day is wonderful in new ways as well!

Holidays can also be causes of anxiety, especially for those of us whose jobs are 24/7/365. It’s painful to miss family gatherings, not to have the time off to share with loved ones who are home and celebrating. A plate of food wrapped in foil can be precious little comfort when our dear ones are playing games and sleeping off dessert in the light of the Christmas tree (or even the light of Fourth-of-July fireworks).

So it’s important for us to hold onto the memories — and meanings — of those days. It’s one of the many reasons I’ve been writing about holidays for so long. By writing about them, I retain them: little images, words — remembrances preserved like ancient life in amber.

These days are full of meaning and depth. Admittedly, I focus my attention here on two holidays. With all due respect, it isn’t that Memorial Day, Independence Day or Labor Day aren’t important. They just grab me a little less than Easter and Christmas. For others, there will be different degrees of investment in special days, perhaps because of special memories or special passions.

I’m writing this and putting together this book because I want to share those things with you. Our holidays say a lot about what we consider to be valuable. And before we even start, let me say: I know — commercialism! Yes, holidays are used to make money for individuals and corporations. Yes, we can be terribly materialistic on those days. Yes, we eat too much and we can be accused of gluttony. The list goes on.

Nevertheless, being less than perfect doesn’t make them less than precious, right? So here are my reflections on those most wonderful days, on meals together and prayers together, on giving and receiving gifts. On God and man, and Jesus and incarnation, on life and death and all the rest of the wonderful things that we can see and learn from those special days.

Holidays and holy days abound — some recognized, and

some very personal. But I hope that by reading the contents of this book, you will find some new depth, some new wonder, some new reasons to delight in the special days we keep each and every year — and, perhaps, good reasons to continue the traditions and pass them down through the ages to your children, your grandchildren or even just your friends.

Happy Holy Days, Dear Reader!

SECTION ONE

EASTER

i live You a lot

My wife and I often text one another, especially when we’re far apart or both simultaneously in meetings or otherwise occupied. A text is a sweet intimacy, a word sent to remind us that we are still there, still a team, across time and space.

Sometimes, my texting is pretty funny. It’s not uncommon for I love you to become I loathe you, thanks to auto-correct. (To be immediately followed by apology and correction.) I lobe you doesn’t make much sense; maybe it’s a subtle way of saying that I’m thinking about her in my inadequate frontal lobe. But the one that seemed to happen more than all the others (until I changed phones) was this: I live you!

Although at first I found this as frustrating as all the other slips of finger, I soon realized that therein was a profound truth. In a culture that maligns and abuses the word love at every possible turn, to say, I live you, is perhaps the closest to the truth of my emotions.

A mother or father says to a child — with every act of care, every touch, every hug, every hour worked to support them, every homework assignment assisted, every personal comfort deferred, every meal and snotty nose — I live you. That is, I will be with you every step of the way. I am by your side. I am demonstrating my love in our life together.

A husband or wife says much the same. The vows we take make it clear. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do we part, forsaking all others ... I live you. It means this: "I make my life with you. As you rise, I rise; as you fall, I fall; as you are dishonored or honored, I am; and as you struggle, I will struggle along your side. And when you leave this