A classic fairy tale, arising from fables shared during the Great Famine of 1314-1322, tells a story of a family suffering from starvation. This family’s two children always eat up all of the available food that is brought into their household. And so one day, the step mother convinces their father to walk them into the woods so that they get lost and cannot find their way home, forcing them to fend for themselves. The first time the brother and sister are escorted into the woods they secretly leave a trail of white pebbles behind and, once left alone, are able to successfully follow them back home. The second time, however, they leave a trail of bread crumbs, which get eaten up by the birds and the children are truly lost, unable to pin point the direction home. They wander in the woods for many days before, starving and tired, they stumble upon an unusual house. The house is built of gingerbread, cakes, candy and has window panes made of clear sugar. It is a child’s perfect feast! The brother and sister run to the house and begin to eat it, quickly satisfying their hunger and giving them a sugar rush! The owner of the house happens to be a witch who has built this enticing house of ginger to lure in children so that she can fatten them up to eat them. She invites the brother and sister inside her house (promising them more food) and puts them in cages to fatten them up. Long story short, the children end up pushing the witch into a fire, stealing her riches, escaping the gingerbread house and making it back home safely to their father to live happily ever after. If you haven’t caught on by now, this is the story of Hansel and Gretel. This tale was the origination of the gingerbread house, and in Germany in the 1800s, the practice of making mini gingerbread houses began. Maybe you’re asking the question: What does this story have to do with Christmas? Great question. The answer is nothing. The reason that the gingerbread house became associated with Christmas was because of the gingerbread. Europeans and Americans would bake the famous, gingersnap cookie around Christmas time. Gingerbread was used to make different forms of art and to tell stories and this naturally evolved into the gingerbread house as we know and love it today.
HOW DOES DECORATING A GINGERBREAD HOUSE CELEBRATE JESUS?
Almost every year I make sure to decorate a gingerbread house. Why? Well, for me it’s just one of those classic things that you do during the Christmas season. My husband and I always buy the gingerbread house kits at our local grocery store. Sometimes we even go all out and buy some good, classic add ons: shreddies for the roof, pretzels to make a picket fence, even some extra M&M’s so that we have enough to string the house with coloured Christmas ‘lights’. I don’t make the gingerbread and cut out the house myself, although, that sounds like a Pinterest idealism right there (and also synonymously a Pinterest fail for me!). This year, while researching the origin of the gingerbread house, I realized that it became a Christmas tradition by accident. There is no purposeful, Christian design or heritage behind the gingerbread house. It was a folk tale that morphed into a baking activity that just so happened to use gingerbread which reminded people of the gingersnap cookies so famously baked around Christmas time. BAM! Christmas tradition. But, just like I said in my first post (which you can read here if you missed it), doing the normal things we do at Christmas, whether completely focused on Jesus (eg. celebrating Advent) or something done purely for fun (eg. decorating a gingerbread house) can still honor Jesus if we invite Him in to celebrate with us. Our God is not boring! When we do fun things and have fun, either on our own or with our community, God delights in that. This past Sunday at the young adults Bible study at our church, our group couldn’t stop laughing! We are studying through the Christmas Story right now (from Luke 2), and we were laughing about ridiculous things unrelated to the Bible passage, but also about questions or wonderings we had about the passage itself. At the end of the night, our hearts were full of God’s word (as we learned so much!) and of joy and community. God enjoys and delights in watching His people celebrate and have fun and I believe He joins in on the laughter with us.
“Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise in the assembly of His faithful people. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with victory.”
Psalm 149:1-4
Even though icing a house made of gingerbread and strategically placing candy all over it doesn’t, in itself, point directly to the season of Advent, Jesus or to the nativity story (unless you do a nativity gingerbread scene which I did one year with the kids at our church) it can stand to remind us of certain truths. In last week’s post we learned that our Christmas trees stands in our most common space in our house during Christmas to remind us that we are celebrating. Additionally, the gingerbread house can symbolically remind Christians of three things to be thankful to Jesus for, each made possible because He decided to come as a baby in the first place. Three things that you can reflect on and celebrate as you slather icing and sprinkle candy on your gingerbread house this Christmas season.
WHAT DOES THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE REMIND US OF? THREE TRUTHS TO KNOW AND CELEBRATE
First, the gingerbread house can remind Christians that we are the dwelling place of God’s Spirit (‘dwelling place’, ‘house’, see what I did there!?) Some translations actually use the word ‘house’.
“How can the house of God get along with false gods? We are the house of the living God. God has said, ‘I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be My people.'”
2 Corinthians 6:16 (NLV)
We are the house of God. As much as this is an everyday truth, this truth was made available to us by Jesus choosing to come to earth in the first place. Immanuel: “God with us. ” In the beginning of the creation of the world, Adam and Eve walked in the perfectly created garden of Eden with God. When they chose themselves over God for the first time, they sinned, separating themselves from a Holy God. The friendship that they had with their Creator, their Father, was broken. The in between time was the waiting game. Each offspring of Adam and Eve’s (this includes everyone who has ever walked on this earth) has not been able to have this friendship with God because of this sin nature. But God never forgot about us. He invited His people, the Israelites, to erect a tabernacle, a Holy tent where He could dwell with them. And then, when they had finally settled in a permanent land, they built God a temple. A temple with separate rooms for worship, community, sacrifice and a special purified room called the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was set apart from the rest of the rooms and no one was able to enter it because God’s Holy presence filled that place. God is not confined to these places, but they are the Holy, set apart places of interacting with His people. That is, until He put His salvation plan into full motion. And now that Jesus has come, lived, died and resurrected to full life, the temple veil, separating God from us, was torn in two and the Spirit of God has come to be with His people. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior have become the very house of God. Through Christ, God is able to dwell with His people.
Prayer Posture: Thank you, Jesus, for coming to us and for making a way for a restored relationship with You: our Father and Creator. Thank you for not just dwelling with us, but for choosing to live inside us: to guide us, seal us, protect us, love us and bless us.
Second, the gingerbread house can remind Christians that, because of this restored relationship with God, we have been invited into the household of God.
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:19-22
God is the creator of all but not the Father of all. When you accept Jesus, His only Begotten Son, then that intimate, familial relationship is accessible. Being a part of God’s family means that you have the privilege of experiencing the love of God (Ephesians 3:17-19), that your needs will be met (Matthew 6:31-33), that you have a spiritual family and can refer to other believers as “brother” and “sister”, that you have a purpose with eternal significance (and this includes sharing our Father with others and inviting them in to the family!), and that you are promised to receive an eternal inheritance in heaven (Ephesians 1:11). Because Jesus came as a baby, joining a human family, we can now be joined through Him to our spiritual family – the household of God!
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.”
Romans 8:14-15
Prayer Posture: Thank you, Jesus, for restoring our heritage. Thank you for bringing us into the very household of God where we now have the privilege to call out to God: “Abba, Father!” just as you did.
Third, the gingerbread house can remind Christians of the place that is being prepared for us in heaven. The celebration of Advent is just as much about the celebration of the remembering of the coming baby King Jesus as it is the anticipation of the second coming of King Jesus. Right now, we live in a place between the two Advents. As we wait for Christ to come back or for our departure from this earth, Jesus, the master carpenter is preparing a room for us.
“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”
John 14:2
This home is not like one we have ever experienced before! Our houses today are much different then the houses you would pass on the streets in Jerusalem. In Biblical times, Jewish men did not build their homes with the intent of spending a majority of their days in them. Instead, their families spent a lot of time outside the home – working, providing, living life in their community. Their home was a place that they would come only to rest. Additionally, in the ancient culture, the extended family would all live in rooms extended off of the father’s house. As the family grew, rooms would continue to be added. This imagery of rest and family is part of what Jesus was alluding to when promising this prepared place to His disciples.
Have you ever taken time taken time to think on the fact that Jesus is preparing a special room for you in Heaven? Jesus, the adopted son of a carpenter, who learned the carpentry trade and spent time crafting earthly houses and furniture, who was also there in the beginning with His Heavenly Father creating the entire Universe (John 1:1-5) . . . He is the one in charge of preparing this special heavenly place for us. A room, just for you, where you will live with the rest of God’s family and experience eternal rest for your soul.
Prayer Posture: Thank you, Jesus, for promising to come back for us. And, because you came once before and have always followed through with your promises, we can anticipate your coming again one day. Thank you that you think about us, know us and that you’re preparing a special room for us to dwell with you in Heaven forever.
GO AND CELEBRATE!
Trimming the tree, decorating gingerbread houses, singing Christmas carols, and exchanging presents are all ways of celebrating, but in themselves they are not the reason for celebrating. Have you ever sat back to consider what exactly you are celebrating at Christmas time? You’re not celebrating the presents, Santa, trees or even family. These are all modes of our celebrating. We are all, whether we recognize it or not, celebrating the only one worth all of this time and effort: Jesus. Christmas is all about God’s saving plan for the world. That first Christmas Day, the day Jesus was born, gave the answer to two thousand years worth of prophecies sharing about God’s plan of action to save the world from sin and hell.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
In Bethlehem, when the cry of baby Jesus broke into that silent night, it was declared a Holy Night. God Himself had made a way to be with His people, those who had rejected Him time and time again, but those whom He had never forgotten and always loved. There is so much to celebrate and praise God for at Christmas time because there are so many spiritual blessings that God has made available to us through the very coming of Christ. Being the house, being a part of the household and anticipating the future house are just three things that we can remember and thank God for as we continue to celebrate Advent this week.
COZY & CLEAN GINGERSNAP COOKIES
Did all that talking of gingerbread make you hungry too? My friend Steph has been working to perfect a gluten free and refined sugar free gingersnap recipe for us to snack on – tasty! She has shared it below. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour
- 1 cup GF Flour (we use cup4cup which has xanthan gum in it which helps everything stick together)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 ¼ tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 3 tbsp butter (softened at room temperature, not melted)
- 1 egg (room temperate is important)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Take butter and egg out of the fridge to bring to room temperature.
- In large bowl, stir together almond flour, gluten free flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
- In a second bowl, beat together butter and coconut sugar until fluffy, 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat together for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add liquid mixture to the first large bowl. Stir together with spatula until mixed. Use your hands to finish mixing all ingredients. Form into a bowl and refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.
- Lay out parchment on the counter, put dough on one side and fold parchment over, flatten with hands and roll out dough with rolling pin. Roll to approx. ¼ inch or just over ½ cm thick.
- Cut into whatever shapes you’d like to use. Carefully transfer to cookie sheet.
- Bake for 11-15 minutes. For crunchier cookies 15 minutes works well, for softer, 12 minutes is good.
If you’re making a gingerbread house the crunchier cookie works best! Use your favorite clean icing recipe to decorate when cooled.
Written by: Justine Joy
Refined Joy 