The people who walked in
darkness have seen a great light – Isaiah 9
The tree is up, the lights are lit, and the gifts are huddled
beneath.
One may think of Christmas gifts as inanimate objects –
things wrapped in fancy paper, tied with ribbons, topped with bows of varied
sizes – but one would be wrong in their thinking.
Every gift lies quietly beneath the tree or within the
stocking hung by the chimney, and while we may not hear them (with our ears)
speaking or whispering, they do (in all truth) have stories to share and tales
to tell.
Some gifts disappoint their recipients, of course. Who
hasn’t groaned a little inside opening up that floppy package knowing full-well
it was going to be socks, underwear, or a new plaid shirt to replace the ones
you’ve suddenly outgrown since school started? You plaster a smile on your
face, look at Mom and Dad, and beam forth with the best, “Oh, gee, thanks,” you
can muster. Mom and Dad know the truth, and they certainly know the thanks is
more tip of the tongue than bottom of the heart, but they accept it graciously
as the morning mayhem continues.
While the practical gifts may underwhelm their young recipients,
they are more than made up for by gifts that dazzle. I still remember the
thrill of coming out into the living room Christmas morning so many years ago
as a young lad to find a brand new Schwinn bicycle standing next to the tree –
a THREE SPEED! That more than made up for the decade of underwear and socks,
and my appreciation did arise from closer to the bottom of my heart.
Gifts tell a tale. Some tell us they’re here to meet our
basic needs. They may not be sexy, but they have a job to do, and they tell us
loved ones are watching over us. Other gifts dazzle us like lightning flashing out
of the blue – an unexpected shock (like a bike), or the special something that
says, “You’re the pitta to my patta!”
The gifts beneath the tree, of course, are stunt doubles.
I’ve got a very nice High Definition television at home and am amazed at how
well I can now discern the use of stunt doubles on some of the old shows, like
Star Trek or The Rifleman. Back in the halcyon days of black and white TVs with
thirteen inch screens and grainy images such details simply could not be seen.
But one can sure see those personnel switches now!
Likewise, the gifts beneath the tree are low-definition
stunt doubles for the greatest gift of all – Jesus Christ.
I suspect many of us are so caught up “in the moment” of
Christmas morning that meditating on that first nativity is lost in the busy
hum of the day’s activities: making breakfast, opening packages, getting the
feast going (if hosting) or getting ready to head out to join up with family or
friends.
I will confess that I have never asked God to “clothe me
with your righteousness” as I’ve gotten dressed on Christmas morning. My
primary goal is to remember to zip up and pray the buttons on my shirt match
the button hole they’re supposed to go through!
The fact is, though, at some point of the day, it is nice to
stop, pause, and reflect that while the day’s gifts may or may not delight us,
they point beyond themselves to ONE who came not to tickle our fancy, but heal
our wounds and tackle our woes. He does not need batteries to work, but will
eventually be battered (and die) for our sake.
By the end of the Day, the house will be a mess – a
disaster. It will look a bit like a proverbial tornado came blowing through
while we were making merry. That, my friends, is reality’s stunt-double. No
matter how hard we work to make things right, at the end of the day life can be
one chaotic mess – and that’s when the gifts tell us the rest of the story.
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