A Merry Little Christmas

 I don’t seem to hear it as much as I did when I was much younger, but the words, “Did you have a big Christmas?”, remain with me as the season draws near. I never liked them. Those words seemed to measure the holiday I loved in the wrong way and begged for comparisons that would only leave someone feeling as if he were less than others. Growing up, our Christmases were never big as far as number of gifts. We always had presents, but it was, at times, difficult for Mom and Dad to do very much gift giving. I still remember going with Mom to make payments on her layaways and with dad to the Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Annual Christmas Party to pick up an amazing bag of company-supplied toys, but Christmas was never really…“big”.

I’m glad it wasn’t. I learned to love and appreciate the little things, simpler times, and the love of family. I even treasured the small brown paper bag containing fruit and hard candy that I received at our church on the Sunday before Christmas every year. Twenty years ago, I observed a church as it attempted to return to those days by giving out similar treats on a Sunday. The kids who received them used the apples and oranges as hand-thrown projectiles in the parking lot when the service was over. They didn’t appreciate little or small and probably would have been equally unimpressed by a baby lying in a feeding trough!

I’m afraid that our love for “big” holidays, over-the-top decorations, and humongous events has missed the point of the humility of Jesus’ birth. He has entered humanity by “emptying” Himself so that His rich treasure would not scare away the humble and the poor. That truth has been verified at His birth announcement with the admonition to…“Fear not!”

About her part in this wonderfully unfolding drama, Mary said:

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.” Luke 1:51-53

There are no large or fancy trappings in Judea.  No big Christmas is mentioned as happening there. The proud, the rulers, and the rich are not the recipients of God’s favor. It is the humble, the poor, and the hungry who are favored on the night of His birth. It is the ordinary shepherd who first hears the angelic proclamation and responds to its invitation. Today, it is for us to make ourselves small through understanding our weakness, admitting our poverty, and humbly bowing before this animal feeding trough to worship Him.

Where will He be found this Christmas? Jesus lodges with the sick and hurting, with the poor outcast, and with those who have had the darkness to blot out their hope. He still finds His home with the ordinary and the humble. Go there, and “have yourself a merry little Christmas!”