My wife and I went to our local community college's Christmas concert last night - choir and orchestra. It was really good...lots of talent. The choir did a medley of Christmas songs, among them "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and "We need a little Christmas". I really like those songs - catchy tunes.
So anyway, as they sang "We need a little Christmas", the thought that's been running around in my head for years resurfaces. You see, I agree that we need a little Christmas. But the question is, "Whose Christmas?"
Main Street tells us that a "little Christmas" is buying your family more than they need and more than you can afford, then buying presents for extended family - presents they will regift at the next party they go to, and then buying gifts for your office. I don't need that "little Christmas.
Hallmark tells us that a "little Christmas" is a huge family, all dressed to the nines, sitting around a roaring fireplace, sipping cider, a mammoth tree decorated by Martha Stewart surrounded by amazingly wrapped presents in the background, smells of a meal cooked by Rachel Ray wafting through the room, and all looking out a huge picture window as snow falls on the horse-drawn carriage. Now, I could stand a bit of that "little Christmas", but come on, that is as unrealistic as the Baylor Bears in a bowl game.
From the more "spiritual" and charitable among us, we hear that Christmas is a time for peace, or that it's a time to buy toys for kids who won't get any, or that it's the time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or to invite a lonely family over for Christmas dinner. I think that's getting closer to the correct idea of a "little Christmas", but why are those things just a once-a-year deal?
So here's the thought running around in my head. A "little Christmas" must be tied to the original one. You remember, right? Simple. Smelly. An unwed teenage mother. A birth among sheep dung (this is a family blog), flies from cows, and dirty hay. A feed trough that doubles as a crib. Shepherds who were told far more than they could grasp. And a baby. THE baby. Not, "Awwww, isn't he cute? He's got his mother's eyes. How much did he weigh? Aren't those dimples just precious? Can I hold him?" No, not that at all.
It's like this. Awe. Staggering, mind-numbing, speechless awe. God. God not just as a man, but God as a baby. The infinite becomes as infant. The omnipotent becomes breakable. When you do speak, you break out in praise. It's all you can do.
No wonder Mary "pondered those things in her heart." So should we. We need a little Christmas.
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6 comments:
Ok, so I really like what you wrote (except the part about the Bears). Next year baby...or the one after that...or the next one! If Missouri and Kansas can do it, Baylor ought to be able to as well.
On the note of Christmas, that's something we're currently struggling with. Our girls really have all they need and we experienced the consumeristic Christmas last year. It was a disaster. We saw a change in our girls' eyes the more they opened.
Even if we don't buy them anything, they will get more than will fit in our house from the grandparents. They have so much fun giving them a bunch of stuff but it also makes it pretty difficult on us.
It really hurts watching our girls change into these little consumers that are never satisfied. Most of the year they don't look the same way.
So, this year both families will be together. We know there will be buffet of gifts for them. In that environment, how in the world does Jesus get the focus?
I'd love some help!
Matthew P,
Ya know, short of direct confrontation, I think you are out of luck. Right or wrong, probably wrong, Theresa and I didn't confront, but we started our own traditions which we made everybody participate in, like them or not. Each Christmas Eve, I read the story and we talked about it. The older our kids got, the longer this lasted. Then on Christmas Day, before we opened presents, we would "give a gift to Jesus" - maybe a poem or a song or a testimony or a commitment, kinda depended on the person and on their maturity (chronological and spiritual). That was good stuff. Really set the tone for all that came after, even the nap. I still remember lots of those "gifts".
Hey, y-life, if it makes you feel any better, we face a very similar situation with our boys.
Scripture and prayer are always part of our Christmas celebrations with both families. However, the boys still get caught up in wanting lots and lots of stuff. Its human nature for one thing and it is nurtured by all the influences you guys have mentioned.
I'm not trying to be a smart alec here so please don't be offended, but I think much of the solution is living who we are in Christ. We belong to the Father who knows how to give good gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father and we can teach our kids that and teach them to be thankful for toys and grandparents while we teach them about Jesus and the gift of salvation.
Another idea, when you start putting away the new toys talk to the kids about the old ones. There are lots of little kids who don't have toys and maybe this would be a good time to donate old toys in good condition to a family or a shelter or a ministry that needs them.
Believe me I feel your pain and I'm open to other ideas as well.
As another parent, I have the same problems. But this year it's getting worse.
Since our kids were born, I've been pretty content to buy them almost nothing--just a few small gifts in a stocking basically (we've got G-parent overload too). But now I see things that I know that would enjoy and really want to buy them these things (have I been infected by the g-parents?).
Thusfar, I have held back knowing that we have all we need and the best gift I could give my kids is contentment in Christ. But it can't be wrong for me to be generous to my kids, could it?
Anybody have any insights? Should I shower them with "blessings" or continue keeping my distance from the commercial Christmas?
Secret,
That's a hard call. I know this, on the other side of parenting (23 & 27, both married) that some of the best lessons they ever learned, some of the things that shaped them to be more like Christ, was when they DIDN'T get what they desired. Some were material things, some were honors or awards, some we all prayed for earnestly. On this side, they don't miss them or even talk of them. The absence of the "thing" is nothing negative, but almost entirely positive.
God does want to bless His kids - AMEN TO THAT - and so should we. We just need to know how much is too much. Sorry, I can't help with that!
I have read your posts and enjoyed all of them. Thank you for your comment on my blog. I welcome all comments even when they don't agree. Yours in Christ, Doylene
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