By Dr. Jim Ferguson
By the time you see this essay, it will almost be winter. According to the astronomical definition, winter begins with the winter solstice, which will be December 21 this year. This day will bring us the least daylight and the longest night of the year.
Ancient cultures in the northern hemisphere must have noticed that shadows at noon were longest on the solstice because the sun’s elevation is at its lowest. But take heart! From this day forward, the sun’s inclination will increase, days will get longer and nights will shorten.
The cultural significance of the “sun’s return” was not lost on ancient cultures. Saturnalia was a Roman festival at the solstice. And perhaps Jesus’ birth came to be celebrated at the time of Saturnalia to avoid persecution. The Yule festival was celebrated by Germanic tribes like the Anglos and the Saxons, who took their celebrations with them as they expanded across Europe to England.
Since the Earth is tilted on its axis by approximately 23 degrees, for six months the Northern Hemisphere is angled away from the sun. Consequently, we receive less solar radiation and we have colder temperatures.
It is fortunate that the Earth has an axial tilt because this causes the seasons. One of the many reasons I like Knoxville is that we have four distinct seasons. I like summer. I love spring and fall. And I tolerate winter. I like cozy fires in our fireplace at night and the Christmas season. I even like a bit of snow, especially the temporary quiet it brings to the world. But then, I’m one and done.
I’m having difficulty kindling the Christmas spirit this year. Becky has put away the Thanksgiving decor, and we’ve put up our small Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It fits our smaller retirement home, even though we can’t use many of our Christmas ornaments we’ve collected in our travels. We no longer need a big tree for wrapped gifts or the largesse Santa used to bring our girls. I remember one late-night trip on Christmas Eve to Pilot Oil to fill up bicycle tires. I felt a kindred spirit with other fathers at the air pump who were also functioning as Santa’s helpers.
I have a friend in Townsend who has a Christmas tree farm. We used to travel like Clark Griswold in “Christmas Vacation” to cut the Ferguson family Christmas tree. The home where we raised our girls now belongs to my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids. It has a great room with an 11-foot ceiling. I’ve been known to bring home bodacious trees necessitating that several feet be cut off to fit it into the room. Nonetheless, it once made an impressive tree (see pic).
Since our girls are grown with younglings of their own, the excitement of Christmas is now more subdued. I’m playing Christmas music and that helps. And we’ve begun our annual pilgrimage through our Christmas movies. But I’ll admit I’m having more trouble this year finding the Christmas spirit.
Though we are blessed, we live in a troubled world. I expect challenges because Jesus said that “In this world you will have trouble.” Jesus went on to say, “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And this gives me hope just as I trust that spring will follow winter.
I trust the “reason for the season” with my future, despite the tumult. Nonetheless, I get weary at times. A friend of mine in Miami told me his city just elected a Democrat mayor for the first time in three decades. He said that less than one in ten citizens voted. Is it apathy or have the “sheeple” ceded leadership to the wolves?
In times past, people would sometimes retreat to secure enclaves or cloistered monasteries. But I cannot retreat from the world.
In circa 60 AD, the Apostle Paul was awaiting trial in Rome, and he did not think it would go well. As a result, he worked to prepare his aide Timothy to take over the ministry. Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). I have changed the Apostle’s words to the future tense and claimed these as my marching orders. Consequently, I write, I never miss a chance to vote, and I boycott when necessary.
As a Christian soldier, I ask, how can America’s problems be addressed if citizens don’t vote, irrationally ignore facts or fail to acknowledge culpability for mistakes? The Somali fraud of a billion-plus dollars in Minnesota is an obvious example and has soured my soul. And I just read of allegations of extensive Medicaid fraud by Somalis in Maine. And there is also the Ukrainian fraud of the $200 billion we sent to help them in their war against Putin.
Americans are a giving people, but we have had it. We don’t require thank yous. We just don’t want to be defrauded.
And what about Biden and his handlers who facilitated the invasion of our country by 10 million illegals who are stressing the housing system, education, medical care and our culture?
From 1920 to 1970, we had “negative immigration where the foreign-born population decreased by 40% for half a century.” People learned English, assimilated and became Americans. “Lyndon Johnson and Teddy Kennedy lifted the lid on immigration and replaced the melting pot with the salad bowl in which people kept their national identity and collected welfare” (Don Surber). We have had it.
What about the fraud of Obamacare, the so-called Affordable Care Act, which isn’t? It was never affordable and collapses without taxpayer subsidies. It was a leap toward national health care and, in the interim, made insurance companies and hospital systems rich. And we must never forget the rampant fraud of the media, which told us Biden was competent, the Covid vaccine was safe and effective and masks protected us. How interesting that the NY Times is now criticizing the impaired Biden. I suspect they want to get the Democrats’ dirty laundry done before the 2026 Midterms.
What is the common theme in all these frauds? Democrats!
I have had it.
