Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year in Hell.
Among the deadly hosts, yuletide is a mocking reminder of that awful day when their archenemy came as a little child to save mankind from their worldly maw. It’s the yearly reminder of the terrible day they saw the handwriting on the sulfurous wall.
Christmas is almost as bad as Easter, that annual commemoration of the day Satan and all his demons got the official and final word that the jig was up.
The Evil One hates Christmas. And even though he knows he can’t beat it, the devil still dedicates the franchise to bloodying it any way he can.
THIS YEAR IN OMAHA, our annual commemoration of the Lord’s birth is looking rather like a fight scene from Raging Bull.
Bloodied. Battered.
But not beaten.
Evil came to my city this week, and it used a broken, disturbed and violent 19-year-old to murder the innocent, shatter their loved ones, terrorize hundreds and batter the hearts, hopes and dreams of us all. Evil came to Westroads Mall, announcing its arrival with the report of an assault rifle — a pow pow pow that cut through the Christmas music on a department store’s public-address system.
What black irony that lay in the heart of darkness. However, says Isaiah . . .
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
THIS PRESENT DARKNESS will not prevail. The light will shine, even if through our tears. In Omaha this year, the devil and his tortured lackey will not steal Christmas. They can break our hearts, but they can’t take away our joy.
Not this Christmas, and not next Christmas. And not the next, or the next after that.
Christmas, and the One Whose birth it celebrates, are bigger than evil, and their joy negates the despair of a lunatic kid who sought to kill the world.
Robert A. Hawkins cannot have Christmas. Neither can the devil. To hell with them. And to Hell with at least one of the two.
THE HORRIBLE NEWS came this week just as I was getting ready to put together the music for this week’s edition of the Revolution 21 podcast. To say the least, it put a crimp in things, which is why the show is a day late — I didn’t know what I was going to do with the podcast.
I could do a tribute show much like ones I’ve done in the past but, then again, going to the well over and over with that format can get old fast. And horrible things worthy of commemoration just keep happening. I couldn’t — can’t — ignore the horror in my own back yard, but. . . .
What sheer awfulness and irony that such a massacre would happen amid a season of great joy and good cheer. Really and truly, it has been almost too much to bear this week. And finally, this one thought hit me. Hard.
They cannot have Christmas.
They will not take the joy of Christmas from us. Not now. Not in Omaha.
Never.
THUS, Revolution 21 — right now — is repeating last year’s Christmas program, replete with the joy of a Christmas I experienced long ago and far away. Where I once again am a child, and where loved ones long gone are alive again.
My prayer is that my yuletide reminiscence will bring on a few happy ones of your own. Sometimes, we find that our joy can become hidden amid the detritus of life in this vail of tears. But it’s there; it just takes a little digging to get to it.
Christ is born in Bethlehem . . . no man, no principality, no power can undo that. Alleluia! There will be Christmas in Omaha, and we will rejoice in it.
And the devil — he who prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls — can just go to Hell.
Merry Christmas, y’all.
In order, here’s the musical lineup from the Big Show for Christmas 2006, which we’re repeating this week as an extra, added yuletide program for 2007. Because we’re ornery that way:
