The Sweetness of Christmas
Monday, December 21st, 2009A favorite southern holiday recipe is candied yams. Candied yams are sweet potatoes prepared with a variation of sugar, brown sugar, molasses or maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, dabs of butter, and topped with marshmallows, if desired. Any way candied yams are prepared, the main ingredient is sweet potato, made sweeter with added sugary ingredients.
One can only assume that, generations ago, someone devised this method of preparation after experiencing a bad crop of sweet potatoes. To sweeten the sweet potatoes, a cook went to her cupboard and used everything sweet that could be found, until the sweet potatoes lived up to their name. Clever as that may be when faced with a bad crop of sweet potatoes, it is unnecessary when good sweet potatoes are available. When this nutritious food is turned into a sugary dessert, it is impossible to enjoy the natural sweetness of the sweet potato. The art of cooking sweet potatoes is knowing how to pick them and then cook them to maintain their natural sweetness.
The basics of picking a good sweet potato is to never choose huge sweet potatoes or narrow potatoes with roots (the larger ones are not the sweetest ones, and if there are roots on the outside, there will be strings inside). Chose medium-size potatoes with a deep orange color. Bake them in their skin, like a baked potato. When they are soft (when you are able to stick a fork in them), enjoy nice, hot sweet potatoes. Once you have eaten properly picked and cooked sweet potatoes, it is unlikely that you will ever want sugar-coated sweet potatoes again.
Similar to sweet potatoes, Christmas has become sugar-coated—overloaded with store-bought, glittery, meaningless stuff. Christ has been bumped from Christmas, as department stores compete for our time, energy and money. We are left unfulfilled after the holiday season because we get caught up in wrappings and bows, with no gratitude for Jesus. Every Christmas, we look to do things bigger and better, with gifts and activities that have nothing to do with Christ. When we let merchants take control of our Christmas, we end up empty inside because nothing bought us closer to God. Jesus Christ is the central ingredient in Christmas and the message of Christmas never needs to be sugar-coated with fairy tales for children or expensive or unnecessary presents to those who will do likewise.
Jesus Christ gave us the greatest gift ever given. (See “God was Born” below.) If you want to do something big at Christmas and year round in gratitude of the gift Christ has given you, seize opportunities to give to someone who cannot give you anything in return. Help someone who cannot help you. Be kind to those who have no expectancy of your kindness. However you chose to celebrate Christmas, remember to invite Jesus, by sharing the message of Christ with everyone you know.
God designed the world to operate by love. In order for God to be true to His order, He has to punish everyone who fails to love. But God, in His infinite love and wisdom, has provided man an escape from eternal death, the punishment for not loving. God made an exchange to save us from our deserved fate. He, Himself, stepped forward to be born of a woman, in order to be subjected to human conditions and temptations. When God was born, He was given a new name. You shall call His name Jesus: for He saves those from sin who accept Him as Lord. (Matthew 1:21) Jesus lived in a world of hate without ever committing a sin, choosing to love, and therefore qualified Himself to be an exchange for us. He accepted total guilt and punishment for our offenses of not loving! Jesus did not give us a license to sin; He gives each and every person an opportunity to be free from sin. Even though Jesus died, He is alive—being the only One in history to rise from death, never to die again, but ascend into heaven—proving Himself to be God!
©VC Edwards
© VC Edwards 2009, All rights reserved.
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