Raise Your Ebenezer (Scrooge?)

If you're like me, when you hear Ebenezer you think of the grumpy, stingy, old Mr. Scrooge from a Christmas Carol. I loved that movie as a kid and watched it every Christmas.

It's tempting to act like a scrooge at Christmas time. With all of the stress and trying to make everything perfect for our families. Maybe you don’t have enough financial stability to buy gifts, or enough time to do all that you need to do. Christmas parties, cranky kids, baking food, cranky husbands, unsatisfied in-laws, traveling, wrapping presents. Just to name a few stressors this time of year.

In the Christian world, especially for those who sing the old hymns, Ebeneezer, means more than just a grumpy old man at Christmas time. There's an old hymn that we sing at our church, called, "Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing" that also takes me back to my child hood as I sang this song in the pew with a hymnal in hand. The tune and the words resonate well, but some may be confused by the second verse of the song which begins with these words: “Here I raise my Ebenezer." No, we're not talking about raising Ebenezer Scrooge. No, rather it refers to seeking help from God. The word Ebenezer comes from the Hebrew words ’Eben hà-ezer (eh’-ben haw-e’-zer), which simply mean “stone of help”. This is referenced in 1 Samuel 7:12. "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’."

Scrooge, may have bah'd and hum bug'd Cratchit's request for coal, which is in fact, a sedimentary rock, but God gladly accepts the stone that we raise in request of his help. When we sing this song, when we raise our Ebenezer, we are acknowledging and thanking God for the help and blessings that he gives us in this life.

So as Christmas approaches, do not fret or stress. Raise your Ebenezer to the One who loves to help those who seek Him. That's the thing, God wants us to seek His help. “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Psalm 8:17

”You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

He is near and wants us to seek His help. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:27

Later in the song, "Come Thou Fount" comes a verse that says, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." We are prone to wander, to go back to sins and worldly ways, and our stressors, but God is always there and listening when we come to our senses and decide to raise our Ebenezer once again and ask for his help and acknowledge his blessings. That's why the song ends with, "Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above."

This Christmas, when the inevitable stress of the holiday season comes, don’t forget to raise your ebenezer to seek the help of the Almighty and seal your heart to God above. With your heart raised in the hope of God, you can have a holly, jolly Christmas this year.