Merry Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying time with your family and friends, as well as taking time to ponder the great gift of Christ’s birth and promise of His return.

Today, we continue the colors of Christmas series with gold, and there’s even a golden little brain teaser for you at the end of this post. I’ve got Burl Ives’ “Silver and Gold” going through my head, as I picture Yukon Cornelius failing time and again to find gold. (If “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” isn’t a must-see on your list of Christmas TV specials, then you probably won’t know who I’m talking about, but trust me, Yukon Cornelius is the worst gold prospector in the whole world.)

In the song Ives sings, he reminds us that the hunt for material gold isn’t the most important way to celebrate Christmas: “Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold/ Means so much more when I see/ Silver and Gold decorations on every Christmas tree.”

This gold star tops our Christmas tree

It’s hard to imagine Christmas without gold decorations, especially stars to remind us of the one that appeared over the manger in Bethlehem where Christ was born, the same star that led the wise men to Jesus.

So it’s only natural at Christmas to think of stars and halos and even a box full of gold given to Jesus in honor of his birth.

The baby Jesus is often depicted with a gold halo to signify his holiness.

Continue reading →