Find the meaning of Christmas in a candy cane
Candy canes! They're everywhere around Christmas time. You probably even had some on your Christmas tree.
Did you know candy canes were first made more than 300 years ago in Germany? They used to be all white and made mostly of sugar. Then people started adding mint flavor, using an herb called hyssop. Hyssop is what people used in the Old Testament when they wanted to make something clean. Psalm 51 says: "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
About 200 years ago, a choir director getting ready for his Christmas party took some of the candy and bent the top around so that it would hang on a Christmas Tree. It was such a great idea that people all over started doing it, too, until it became a widespread tradition.
Colors started being added about 100 years ago when someone from Georgia added a red stripe to the candy. Now you can get candy canes with many different colors on them, like the one in the picture.
So how do candy canes show us the meaning of Christmas?
The shape:
If you turn the candy cane upside down, it looks like a "J" for Jesus.
If you turn it back the right way, it looks like a shepherd's crook. Remember that Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
The colors:
Red - Represents the blood of Jesus.
White - Jesus washes away the stain of our sins to make us white as snow.
Green - When Jesus comes back, there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth. Everything is going to be new and fresh and beautiful.
Yellow - The light in heaven is not going to be the sun or stars, it's going to be Jesus.
As you enjoy your Christmas candy canes, remember to think about what they represent. Remember that Christmas is more than just a celebration of His birth. It’s remembering that He is our good shepherd and that He came - as a baby on that first Christmas - and would eventually shed His blood to wash away the stain of our sins…making us whiter than snow.
About the Redeemer Community Church PCA children's devotions:
Sometimes it can be hard to break down Biblical truths for our kids into easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember bite-sized pieces. Pastor Chuck does this weekly in his Children's Sermon, and we're sharing key points from those sermons here each week. Feel free to use with your littles as conversation starters throughout the week, reminders of what we learned in church on Sundays, and just general opportunities to share our love of God's word and His love for us.