We haven't heard too much in the past few years about Political Correctedness and the wishing of "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," though the effects of such discussions are still lingering.
One of my favorite things about this season is wishing Merry Christmas to my patients, to the cashiers at the grocery stores, to anyone I interact with. Some definitely get caught off-guard and will stammer out a "Thank you" or "Happy Holidays" or something like that. Perhaps, a "You too!" after an awkward pause. Most return an enthusiastic, "Merry Christmas to you!" in return, and I love it.
There's the sharing of brotherly love right there. The well-wishing to a near stranger. The hope for altruistic goodness to happen to another person. And not just the hope for "goodness" by itself, but for an enjoyable holiday too, hopefully surrounded by friends, family, or loved ones, all sharing their love with each other.
And in addition to the goodness, the sharing of love, and an enjoyable day off, it is linked to the hope of a goodness that will happen to all of us, forever and ever.
How so? And why do I care what atheists think of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas?
Folklore, traditions, Christmas symbols like trees and lights and stockings aside, Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of a Christ, of the Messiah, the Savior of the World. The birth of a shamed woman who became pregnant before she got married, her new husband and her baby running for the live's into exile into another country for many years. A family so poor and alone, and crowded out, at the time of birth that they hunkered down into a dirty stinky barn, among the smelly animals, and likely the accompanying flies, surrounded by animal urine and feces, to give birth and put the newborn baby in a feed-trough. This event was marked in history by those who were there as being signaled by mysterious astronomic events, bright stars, glorious angels and heavenly choirs, and a pack of basically homeless, unbathed, uneducated, ignorant shepherds coming to give their approval of the baby. Sometime later, some wealthy elitists dropped by and basically awarded the family a lottery's worth of winnings in special gifts.
This baby then grows up somewhat respectably and starts preaching to anyone that'll listen that he was born to save the world, that he was literally God's gift to mankind, and believes it himself so much that he pokes the bear and gets killed by it, professing the entire time that it's going exactly as planned.
What kind of story is this?
It is the story of hope and ideals.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is this one:
Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny."--Carl Schurz
Even if you don't believe in God, I propose a few good reasons to aim for a God, like a sailor aims for stars.
To believers, God represents the ultimate in Goodness. The ultimate in Love. God is Love and Christ is LOVE embodied here on earth. Their message was one of Love. And while love entails correction, disciplining, and leaving one alone to grow for themselves and experience individuality in all its painful wonder, it also embodies unity of individuals, growth through correction, and the gain of control over our surroundings through discipline.
If we sail by the wrong star, one that's close but not quite, or if we use a compass that is off by a few degrees, we may get near our ultimate destination, but we will ultimately miss it, and we may miss it by a lot.
When we set up our ideal as a God who embodies Love, it sets the course of our life on the correct path. When we envision a God who is self-sacrificing, who preaches unity of purpose among diversity of experience, who encourages gratitude, who commands us to look for positivity in all our experiences, who gives us reasons to Hope when darkness is all around us, we set our lives in alignment like iron filings align with the poles of a magnet, like electrons align with a current, like cars cooperating to get through traffic, like fibers in a cloth, and filaments or rods inside concrete. We become the source of all that's strong about humanity.
Atheists and biologists will tell you this is evolution, genetics, and biology. Nature. And they are right. It is Nature. It is a perfect nature. God is the God of Nature. Nature as we understand it exists because of the Fatherly God as we understand him. He gave us a home where we fit in and belong, that is as welcoming to us as anything could be. And he wants us to become like him. Nature wants us to improve, to evolve, to get better, to survive. Most of us with properly functioning minds have an innate drive to do so. We HOPE to become better. And that HOPE keeps us going.
When all seems dark, lost, and destroyed, hope is what stirs us to try again, to rebuild, and to find our way. Like a light shining in the darkness. Like a perfect blue marble drifting through space. Like a homeless man, born in a poop-filled barn teaching us of what we can become like, we learn to Hope for better things through the story of Christ.
This Hope is everything that every Life-Coach from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins is telling us. To not quit. To keep trying. To keep our course aligned with that star, with that compass, with that ideal, despite whatever storms, obstacles, darkness, fog, waves, hurricanes, mountains, ravines, enemies, or the like get in our way.
So, right at the beginning of every long, dark, barren, cold, lifeless winter, we light extra lights, we invite ever-green trees into our home. We share stories of charitable old men who faced storms to give presents. And we stress ourselves out making meals and buying gifts to share with our loved ones and neighbors, and those less fortunate than ourselves. All to stir up that hope. To kindle that fire that will keep us going through the new year. To renew our purpose for trying.
To teach us to Love each other. We should ALL encourage the celebration of Christmas, in all its splendour and glory. I'm glad that so many of us do.
Merry Christmas.
Pictures and Images via Wikipedia
By Jeff Weese - Flickr: Nativity, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17685604
