Merry Christmas!

Not even the news of the Christmas turkey bestowed on the country by the U.S. Senate today could dampen our enthusiasm for Christmas. It is a day, after all, that celebrates the birth of the man who when faced with the ultimate Church and State issue wisely said “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” There is reality and there is the truly real. Jesus understood that his life was an incursion of light into darkness, the beginning of the final assault from Heaven on the Realm of Rebellion. That is why he was sent “in the likeness of sinful humanity.” What the Law could never do -what we could never do- God did. And it all starts with that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

This year I heard both ends of the celebration spectrum. Some friends lamented that Christmas is no longer what it used to be when they were kids. Now they live vicariously through their kids’ happiness as they open presents. They play Santa Claus and try to preserve the fantasy one more year. Another expressed a quiet joy growing each year as the wonder of God’s gift unfolds in her life. Which is more true of me, I wondered? Which is more true of you?

This Christmas between the feasts and presents and the rushing hither and thither I hope you can take a quiet moment to reflect on the child who was God pitching his tent with us. The wonder of Christmas is found there.

UPDATE: In those quiet moments, say a prayer for the persecuted church, including the small contingent in Iraq.