There has been a tradition in my family where the patriarch, every Christmas morning, would make a cup of coffee and sit around watching the children open their gifts. My father has always been a stoic and serious man, but I remember him always taking delight in the “joyful noise” that was his children on Christmas morning. Last year, as I visited my parents’ house with my own children, I woke on Christmas morning to find them so excited that they couldn’t contain themselves. As I sat looking over the gifts, my dad, with two mugs in his hand, offered me one. “When you were young,” he said, “you used to believe in Santa. And then you stopped. Now you’re Santa Claus!”
This message isn’t about Santa but my dad has a point. Christmas has always had a special place in the hearts of children and even for many of us who have yet to have kids we still associate Christmas with a kind of “childishness.” Even with gift-giving, we are forced to become a little “childish.” But it is this “childishness” that the world of globalism tells us is silly. They expect us to maintain a kind of sterile productive seriousness, or in the very least, a kind of foolish revelry wrapped up in consumerism. The latter is effete, saccharine, and plastic. But it is the childishness that knows no guile and radiates innocence. A child has the ability to look upon the world at its face value, discovering the measureless wonders that it offers.
Christ taught us that children are, in fact, a sign of the kingdom to come. “Let the little children come to me, and hinder them not. For to such things belongs the kingdom of God.” Jesus wasn’t telling his disciples to be accepting of everything without question, like “progressive freethinkers” would have us believe. In fact, a casual dialogue with any three year old will reveal that children are very inquisitive! What Christ was telling us is that children are enthusiastic receivers. They receive joyfully, openly, and are willing to share that joy with others.
It is no wonder that Christmas centers around a child. Not just any child, but a God-child who is also a king. This king could have come into the world in an invasion, with an array of angels to assert His authority. He could have come with smoke, thunder, and fire as He did when He inscribed the Law for the Israelites of old.
But He doesn’t do that.
He comes as a defenseless, shivering child requiring His mother’s milk to stay alive. He needs the protection of His earthly father to defend Him from a tyrant and murderers. He demands nothing. He comes as a child waiting to receive love. His authority is not derived from His might. But rather His majesty and the right of His rule is justified by His willingness to humble Himself and serve – His desire to become a child.
May the Lord help us to become more like children this Christmastide, for it will only be “children” who will have any place in God’s court in the hereafter.
-By Soco
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
