Ah,
Christmas!
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 12/22/19
Christmas
is a bundle of contradictions. Peace on
earth? Where? Yet all around us and
around the world there are many people in dire circumstances who truly do
experience peace daily. They are
realists who are well aware of the condition of the world, yet they not only
cope. They thrive and are somehow able
to keep the misfortunes of life from getting them down. Many consider their misfortunes an
opportunity to help bring to others the comfort and joy they themselves
experience.
Superficially,
Christmas is all about beauty and celebration.
Store managers and home dwellers can really do magical things with
decorations. But the draw that all of
the superficiality produces is evidence that we all need and seek beauty and
joy.
Who but a Grinch could
not find at least some kind of satisfaction in Christmas lights and the happy
faces of children? Who could seriously
argue that the overall effect of Christmas is not positive? Buried beneath the superficiality and
commercialism, hope seems always to stir – hope that things will get better,
that soured relationships will be restored, that more goodwill will prevail in
the year ahead, and that darkness of all stripes will be dispelled.
Christmas is big stuff. In fact it’s lots of stuff, probably too
much. I’m persuaded that for those who
are sad at Christmas, their sadness is not caused by seeing and envying others
who are joyful, but by seeing and bemoaning the obvious void that all the stuff
creates. Trinkets, new clothes, money,
and gift cards are all nice, but they typically have a short life span after
which many are back in their slump.
That slump can be more
easily dealt with if one considers how the Christmas story has affected three
continents. Ironically, the land where
Christmas started is not primarily a Christian region. Europe and the Americas are the lands that
have cradled the Christian gospel and given it to the world, not just the babe
in a manger account, but the schools, hospitals, and orphanages that have
followed it. Christmas when rightly
understood and received has always changed hearts, sprouted legs, and sought
out the needs of others.
Yes, Christmas is about
a birth and how that birth affected the world.
One of our most popular Christmas carols contains the words, “Long lay
the world in sin and error pining / ‘Till He appeared and the soul felt its
worth.”
Sin we understand. It’s wrong to murder, to lie, to steal. Error we sometimes miss. It was error for ancient men of nobility to sincerely
believe that certain people had no worth except to serve the nobility. Perhaps the human soul began to feel its
worth because of the humble origins of the One who claimed He was God come
down. It was error (and sin) for modern
man to perpetuate the ancient world’s injustice and political tyranny, error to
think that God indwelt idols, error to think that our five senses are the
highest reality or to believe that matter and energy are the only realities.
Many psychiatrists have
spoken of the loneliness experienced by so many at Christmas. The good news is that, if the Christmas story
is true, nobody is alone. Christmas –
Christmas beneath and beyond the superficialities – says that God put on an
earth suit and dwelt among us. The title
Emmanuel means “God with us.” We had
better hope that the Christmas account is true.
The human race is in dire need of it.
We’re not controlling our selfishness too well. We chase the wind. We even let prosperity be our undoing. We need an internal governor of sorts that
sublimates our self-centeredness and shows us how to look out for our fellow
man. The Christmas message purports to
do just that and has done it for millions.
Reviling the
supernatural, an MDJ letter writer recently claimed that Thanksgiving was
intended as a day to give thanks to “mothers and fathers, cooks and farmers,
and kind relatives.” That’s not exactly what Lincoln and FDR had in mind. Neither was such broad application what
President Grant had in mind when in1870 he instituted Christmas Day as a
holiday. Grant rightly believed
Christmas Day would help re-unite our torn nation. It did help.
Those who will have an
empty pantry or an empty chair at their table this year are just the ones that
Christmas should drive our minds and legs to.
We still have a few days to seek such people out. But if granted a New Year, we can ask along
with Elvis, “Why can’t every day be like Christmas?”
To millions, every day
is. That’s the Ah! of Christmas.
Roger Hines
12/18/19
