Joy to the World - Pt 16

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21 ESV).

In light of the recent effort of the principal of Omaha-area Manchester Elementary School, Jennifer Sinclair, to ban all use of any Christmas symbols that might point to Jesus, I thought an explanation of the candy cane’s origin might be instructive. According to the legend of the candy cane, the story says that a choirmaster, in 1670, was worried about the children sitting quietly all through the long Christmas nativity service. So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet. As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made candy sticks into a ‘J’ shape like a shepherd’s crook, to remind them of the shepherds that visited the baby Jesus at the first Christmas. Sometime around 1900 the red stripes were added and they were flavored with peppermint or wintergreen. Sometimes other Christian meanings are giving to the parts of the canes. The ‘J’ can also mean Jesus. The white of the cane can represent the purity of Jesus Christ and the red stripes are for the blood he shed when he died on the cross. The peppermint flavor can represent the hyssop plant that was used for purifying in the Bible. Around 1920, Bob McCormack, from Georgia, started making canes for his family and friends. They became more and more popular and he started his own business called Bob’s Candies. Bob McCormack’s brother-in-law, Gregory Harding Keller, who was a Catholic priest, invented the Keller Machine that made turning straight candy sticks into curved candy canes automatic. In 2005, Bob’s Candies was bought by Farley and Sathers and they still make candy canes today. Christmas may be many things to many people, however, for the believer it must be the beginning of the atoning work of Jesus. It is through his blood that he becomes the Mediator of a new covenant. The candy cane really is a good symbolic representation of that truth. The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, affected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ. Our reading today speaks to that truth. So the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation down for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts in your heart and in your mind, and seals to you that you are a child of God. The principal who tried to deny the use of candy canes and other symbols for Christmas decorations was not successful. We ought to be reminded of the necessity of keeping the message clear, especially at this time of the year.