I know Ron and Stephen already mentioned Christmas. But how can I not make mention of it too? Christmas is this week. What’s more, I wore my Christmas socks to church today, I have a slowly dying pine decorated haphazardly right next to me, and I currently have Relient K’s Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer[1] blaring in the background. The only thing I’m missing is the Christmas classic, Die Hard, to round out these yuletide vibes.
Now, if you didn’t know, I’m a grown man. Admittedly, if you were to ask my wife, this little factoid would be up for debate. And I can’t really blame her for thinking that. After all, I did ask Santa to bring me the LEGO NASA Space Shuttle Discovery model #10283 for Christmas.[2] (Twelve year old Ben would be very proud.) But, according to my driver’s license, I am technically a grown-up. And the point I’m trying to make is that Christmas for me today is different than it was for me when I was a kid. Rather than it revolving around the presents, Christmas has become more about making moments; it’s become about finding joy in the inconsequential bits of the holiday season and not, necessarily, finding it in the actual holiday itself.
While my kids are no doubt looking forward to the presents on Christmas morning, I’m looking forward to the board games that follow. And while I know I’ll eventually be counting down the days till they go back to school, I will also enjoy the extra time with them at home. And, hopefully, it’ll snow. There are very few things more rewarding than pegging your kid in the back of the head with a snowball. You can’t buy that in a store. Thus, not to get overly sentimental here, but the holidays are an excuse for me to make mundane moments memorable. And, I’m not alone in this. The first Christmas is just a series of ordinary moments turned extraordinary by God.
For instance, how about the angels? Of all the people they could’ve come to, Luke tells us that they came to shepherds—i.e., ordinary people. They did not go to some “important” world leader, but to everyday blue-collar people working the third shift. The story goes that it wasn’t just one angel that came to the shepherds, but a whole heavenly “host” gave them a midnight concert. The term “host,” if you didn’t know, is “army” in today’s vernacular. Meaning a group honed for combat did not make war but made music! In all of history, has there ever been a military force marshaled to the front lines to sing a song about peace?
Or, how about the manger? A newborn swaddled in their mother’s arms is as commonplace as presents under a Christmas tree. But how strange it must’ve been for shepherds to find a baby not only wrapped but lying in a manger—i.e., a feeding trough. Indeed, no mother would’ve done that had she any other options. Yet, stranger still, is the fact that when Jesus—he who made the world—came into the world, the world made no room for him. There wasn’t so much as bunk in a Motel 6 for him to lay his head. He spent his first night on earth in a nondescript barn.
The most bizarre aspect of the Christmas story is that Jesus’ birth was equal parts unimpressive and impressive. God turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. Can anyone think of a more insipid birth narrative with so many unique elements than this? All the great heroes have remarkable beginnings. And while, unlike Jesus, many of these famous people are nothing more than mere fairytales and, thus, their stories should be taken with a grain of salt, it is, nevertheless, worth making a brief comparison between myth and reality.
For example, allegedly, the Buddha took seven steps after being born and said, “I am the chief of the world.” Whereas Jesus didn't enter the world as a fully matured human being. He had to grow up like any other person. Achilles was dipped in the River Styx, making him nearly invincible. But Jesus bled like us. He made himself vulnerable. And like any other child, if not for those swaddling clothes, the Son of God would’ve been cold that first Christmas night. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were raised by wolves. However, Jesus had a mother who changed his diapers, fed him when he was hungry, and rocked him to sleep when he was tired. Aside from an episode in the Temple when he was 12, Jesus had an ordinary upbringing.
The Christmas story stands apart because it mixes the banal and the bizarre. It turns forgettable moments into memorable ones. And when we find God at work in the ordinary bits of our day, it is there where we find joy in the most unexpected places. The true gifts of Christmas are not the presents underneath the tree but the happenings going on around the Christmas tree.
[1] Wikipedia contributors, "Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Let_It_Snow,_Baby..._Let_It_Reindeer&oldid=1004293963 (accessed December 19, 2021).
[2] This is the one with a miniaturized version of the Hubble Space Telescope that can actually be deployed from the model itself. Pretty cool, right?! Also, if you’re one of the few who actually read the footnotes, please send me money. This model is very expensive and my wife won’t allow me to get it.
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