A Reflection on Eggnog

My wife loves eggnog at Christmastime. At night after the kids go to bed, she likes to curl up under a blanket with some eggnog and a good book while the snow gently falls outside and the fireplace softly crackles. (OK. I exaggerated a bit just to set the mood.) One night recently she was making yummy noises as she sipped her eggnog and I asked, “Why is eggnog the only nog? Shouldn’t there be other nogs?”

Why should the egg get the exclusive rights to being a nog? Surely we could expand a bit in the nog realm? Which leads me to the next question. If eggnog is the only nog, why is there the need to use the descriptor “egg”? Shouldn’t we just call it “nog”? When you go into Starbucks (if you do that sort of thing) and you order your Eggnog Latte (if you happen to like those), you should be able to simply order a Nog Latte. Seriously. If you did that, would the barista ask, “What kind of nog?” No! There are no other nogs…only egg.

So what’s the point? I’m glad you asked. Apparently, there is something so eggish about a nog that they always go together. You can’t have a nog without the egg. It’s the same with Christmas and hope. The story of Christmas is the ultimate story that tells us why hope exists in the world. God saw how this world that He created was in need of saving, of restoring, of redeeming and He stepped in to give us hope.

Without the story of Christmas, hope would have died. Without the Creator entering the story in a new way—in the form of a little baby of all things—despair would have taken over forever. But because of Christmas, hope burgeons. When we look at our world today full of broken people and broken systems, we must remember that the story of Christmas is still happening today.

When God seems absent and we begin to wonder if He has forgotten us, that is when He shows up. When it seems like God is silent and we wonder if He will ever speak again, that is when He speaks. And when we begin to feel that there is no hope for forgiveness, no hope for restoration or healing, no hope for a better future, God sends hope to us in ways that we never expect.

Hope and Christmas are connected just like egg and nog. Without Christmas, we wouldn’t have a real, deep, and lasting hope. So as you sip your eggnog this Christmas season, think about hope. Think about how the story of Christmas and the message of hope for the world are inseparably tied together. Think about the people you know that need to be reminded of the hope that we have because of Christmas. You might just want to pour them a cup of eggnog and as you sip it together, you could tell them about this crazy blog post you read about eggnog…and hope.

If you want, tell us the first names of those friends and family who you are hoping to have a cup of eggnog with and as a community we can pray for opportunities.

And by the way, don’t forget the nutmeg.