Dec
8
2017
The Antique Christmas Ball
Posted in Heaven 2 Comments
When my friends and I came home after the lovely Christmas social, I opened a present.
One of my friends had gift bags for each of us.
She gave them to us before we left.
My gift bag was on my desk in the kitchen.
I had not thought about the gift all evening.
There it was, waiting for me when I got home.
I opened the bag to see some of my friend’s delicious chocolate chip cookies.
There was a gold box in the gift bag as well.
I opened the lid of the box and saw lots of shimmery stuffing.
It was the kind of stuffing you see in the bottom of an Easter basket.
Between the shimmer of the gold box and the shimmer of the stuffing, I was intrigued.
I pulled out the stuffing, as it cascaded all over my kitchen island and the floor below.
Wrapped carefully in all of that stuffing, there was one, fragile, Christmas ball.
I saw the blue glass ball right away.
I noticed that there were intricate drawing all around it.
I carefully took the ball out of the box and saw that there was a tag attached.
The tag, written in my friend’s handwriting, said: Something old to celebrate someone new!
This was her special way to commemorate our grandchild who is expected in the spring.
I turned the Christmas ball around in my hands.
I could tell the fragile glass ball was quite old.
Etched around the ball were simple drawings that depicted childhood things.
There was a little girl riding a stick pony.
There was a sail boat, the kind you might put into shallow water on a summer day.
There was a cuddly teddy bear, a waddling duck, and a clown with toy blocks scattered about.
The drawings were similar to ones I have seen in old, children’s picture books.
I noticed something in the bottom of the bag.
It was a card, folded in half with the name and hours of an antique store.
I assume my friend found the adorable Christmas ball there.
I held it in my hand, thinking about the little one who is to arrive in the spring.
I imagined the day that I could take him or her into our living room and show them the tree.
In my mind’s eye, I saw me holding this precious child and pointing to the special ball.
I heard myself pointing out all the toys in the childhood scene.
I looked at the ball and heard my mother singing, Toyland, as we drove in the car.
That would often be the song she would sing when we drove at night.
As a little girl, her soothing voice and the lilt of the song put me to sleep.
In a blink of an eye, we were home and I never remembered getting there.
It was not until I was older that I realized the song was quite sad.
It was about leaving something behind.
It was about growing up.
It was about never returning to the comfort of the nursery.
It is the theme of stories and poems.
It is the pain in every mother’s heart.
If they could just stay little a bit longer.
Children are not the only ones who leave Toyland.
Toyland, toyland,
Little girl and boy land,
While you dwell within it,
You are ever happy then.
Childhood, joyland,
Mystic merry toyland,
Once you pass its borders,
You can never return again.
(Toyland, by Victor Herbert)
I had to grow up to realize the meaning of the song that comforted me and put me to sleep.
To this day, my throat gets tight when I hear that song.
If I am in a wistful mood, a tiny tear may come to my eye.
It is a longing that cannot be explained.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling.
(2 Corinthians 5:2)
There is a longing that this world cannot fill.
There is a lump in our throat knowing we cannot return to the place for which we were created.
On our own, there is no way back to our Heavenly Home.
However, there is a Way; the Way is a Person.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they were banished from the Garden.
We were created to be with God.
God’s heart cry is to be with us.
That is why God the Father had a plan already in motion.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law…(Galatians 4:4)
God the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to be born of Mary.
Jesus experienced a natural birth.
Jesus experienced hunger, pain, discomfort, loneliness, and sadness.
Jesus came to this fallen place so that we could go Home again.
Adam and Eve passed the borders of the Garden; they could never go back again on their own.
They, like us, needed a Savior.
They, like us, needed a Redeemer.
They like us, needed Someone to show them the way back Home.
I hear Toyland now and think of that eternal border we will one day cross.
Without belief in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, we have no way Home.
Without belief in His Resurrection, death still has its sting and has the last word.
Because of Jesus, death has died; the sting is gone, and the Way is clear.
In Christ, we can go back again.
We can go back because that is the place we were created to inhabit.
That is the longing that nothing satisfies.
That is the only Home that will truly feel like Home.
We can return to the place from which we were banished in our sin.
We can go back when we follow the One who came from Heaven and returned to Heaven.
There is a Way back across that border.
The Way is a Person; His name is Jesus.
LISTEN TO THE SONG:
“Toyland” by Victor Herbert & Glen MacDonough.
From “Babes In Toyland” published 1903.
Performed by G. Barrett.
How touching!! Even an old Christmas ornament can point us to the Savior! Congratulations on your first Grandchild….another precious gift. Beth Beach
Thank you, Beth! We are rejoicing!
I love the way God makes Himself known through the simplest things! In this time of Advent, we wait, yet His presence is all around us. If I am correct, it is your shop where my friend purchased the Antique Christmas Ornament. Thank you!
Blessings,
Gina