Day 6: Candy Canes

When I started my research on the symbols of Christmas, I thought I had candy canes all figured out. I was very happy to be wrong (that may be the only time you hear me say that).

There is a lot of speculation as to how candy canes came to be associated with Christmas, whether the story is true or a legend, we don't know, but it's a fun story to tell either way. "About two hundred-thirty years ago at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, the children who attended church there were very irreverent. They often moved around and would not pay attention to the choirmaster. 

This was especially difficult for the choirmaster when they were supposed to be sitting still for the long living Nativity ceremony. So to keep the children quiet, he gave them a long, white, sugar candy stick. He bent the stick on the end to look like a cane. It was mean to remind the children of the shepherds at Jesus' birth." Over the years more symbolism was attached to the candy cane until it evolved into the symbol we have today. 

The original symbol of the shepherd staff reminds us that Christ is our Shepherd. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." Christ will take care of us and feed us and nurture us as our Good Shepherd.

The hardness of the candy reminds us that Christ is the rock of our salvation. "And he said, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence." "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

The white reminds us of the unblemished pure sacrifice He offered on our behalf. The red reminds us of the life He gave that we might live again. Organizing the red and white into stripes reminds us of the stripes He took that we might be spared from the same. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

This Christmas as we enjoy the sweetness of the candy cane. Let us remember the sweetness He offered us through the bitterness of His Atonement. Truly He will lead us and guide us as our Good Shepherd if we will but follow Him. In the holy name of Him who was the shepherd and the lamb of sacrifice, Jesus Christ, Amen.