Christmas: Perspective
After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Matthew 2:11a nasbu
As one grows older one gains the advantage of perspective. The lofty heights of age give one a better vantage point from which to understand the stupidity that has passed before. And from that same vantage point one can see how much of life consists of circles upon circles. As a small child growing up in the midwest, the tattered, cardboard nativity set that the family placed beneath the branches of our Christmas tree held a special focus for me. Perhaps it was because, as the smallest and youngest in the family, it was down on my level. Perhaps it was because it was so much like a set of toys--the painted plaster figures much like the plastic soldiers I would position and play with. Later, as a worldly and much wiser teenager, I realized the utter vacuity of the tradition; like so much else associated with the organized church, the traditions of Christmas were nothing more than silly, empty manifestations of man's low opinion of self. Happily, most of us not only survive the stupidity of our youth, but actually grow out of it. As someone on the leeward side of middle age, I now cherish the tradition of the Christmas nativity, for it succinctly illustrates the true nature of the holiday. The point of it is The Child--the tiny baby lying in the manger. No matter how many figurines of various characters one has in their nativity set, they all face toward The Child. That is the point of it. Christmas is The Child: God come down as flesh; to be born in flesh; to live in flesh; to die in flesh; and, as flesh, to be raised from death to life. That is Christmas: God willing to be intimately associated with His creation by becoming, for a while, one of them.For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4 nasbu
At Christmas time we all celebrate something. For some, it is the chance to spread good cheer and happiness; it is a time for generosity and compassion. For some, it is a time for office parties, small trays of cookies or candy, and sharing bottles of spirits. For many, it is a chance to receive gifts from, as well as give gifts to, friends and family. For others, the celebration is a solitary vigil filled with the pain of loneliness--something grabbing in the pit of the stomach, an awful memory that comes crying back into the consciousness. But what we are to celebrate at Christmas is not any of this at all. The tinsel and garlands and electric lights on a harvested evergreen--these are all, well, (as someone once said) just silly, empty manifestations of man's low opinion of self. Christmas is The Child. His fragility. His apparent helplessness. His similarity to everyone else. His tenderness. His soft expression of love. Christmas is God's sacrificial love toward man, expressed in The Child.O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord.