Once again it has been quite some time since my last post. I think that is a pattern that will last forever.
My topic today, not surprising given the time of year, is Christmas. And in truth, a somewhat sober view of Christmas. I grew up, as so many children did, thinking Christmas was the most fabulous time ever. Of course, as a very young boy, it was all about presents. But my parents always did a very good job at making sure we understood the true meaning of Christmas, which of course is the birth of Christ. When I was somewhere around ten years old, I can't say I fully understood all that is involved in Christmas and Jesus' life, but I did know enough to appreciate that he came into this world to save us, and there was always a sense of peace at Christmas time.
Little by little, no matter how motivated I tried to be, I grew older and experienced life in all its wonder and its horror. At Christmas I still felt the sense of peace I had when I was younger, but it was starting to wane. I desperately wanted to believe everything would be okay because Christ was born and the world would experience his peace. I kept thinking positive, even if it was a bit naïve. To be clear, I have had a wonderful life, but all of us, every human being alive, experiences struggles on a regular basis. There were major events like Vietnam and Watergate that made me question what role God was playing in this world. There were personal things, people I knew who died, families experiencing divorce, cancer, unemployment. I lost my first job shortly before Christmas one year. Still, I used Christmas as a time to rejoice, but in truth I was questioning why Christmas was special at all. For five weeks I would spend more money than I had to celebrate this special day, and then the next day nothing changed, and for eleven more months we all dealt with the woes of life.
Now I'm older still, just turned 60. Even people that have had great lives have seen a lot of pain and tragedy by 60, and I am no different. I sit here listening to Christmas carols about how Christmas is the time we all come together in a bond of love and peace, yet the TV tells of continual mass shootings, these crazy ISIS people, protest in many of our major cities about things I'm not even clear on, marriages and families torn apart at record levels, children are frequently abused, even by those we used to think were incapable of such things, and all that is on a good day. I mean, really, are we actually going to rejoice and pretend things will someday get better? Here is what I have learned in sixty years; there never was peace on earth, and there never will be. Wars will never go away, the hopeless desperation of millions of people won't go away, millions of children will continue to be abused, and I cannot stop it. Life takes its toll, and I fear I've crossed over to believing Christmas is a total façade.
But then, I look over and see the little manger scene we have in our house. The little baby born in the middle of a cold night to complete poverty. Against all odds, this baby changed the world. What I realized is that the world didn't change in the way I would have like to see it change. As stated above, there are still wars, there is still pain, that will never go away. But that's not why Jesus came into this world. I used to think it was, and I became terribly disappointed. I now see that Jesus came to us to teach us a few very simple points; 1) He loves us and we should love him, as well as love all people; 2) He will never abandon us, which doesn't mean he will magically remove our problems, but he will guide us and help us with our ability to deal with them; 3) As hopeless as the world may outwardly appear, there is always hope for us internally. In short, Jesus, never did promise to "fix" our world, but he gave us the ability to individually find our own peace, our own happiness, our own sense of love and contentment. With this, we can use these gifts to help the world. Not to "fix" the world, because it's probably not "fixable", but we can help it and be a positive influence for others.
The miracle I experienced this Christmas is to finally realize Christmas has nothing to do with God altering this mess of a world we humans made, but it reminds us that we can lean on him as we trudge through and do our best to deal with the world and maybe, if we work hard, make it a tiny bit better for someone. Christmas is not magical; it is a time to refresh our own sense of who we are and who God wants us to be, and then to suck it up and say, "Jesus, with your help, I'm going to give life a shot one more year." And then, with renewed energy, go out and do just that.
Christmas is truly the greatest time of the year.
