So...This Was Christmas

 

Copyright © 2020

by Ralph F. Couey

This was Christmas Day, certainly one of the most quiet and subdued in memory.  Banned from large gatherings, families nevertheless sat in front of Christmas trees while children eagerly tore into the carefully-wrapped packages.  There were still the squeals of joy, the best Christmas music, in my view, but so many of the cherished traditions of the holiday were set aside because of the Pandemic.

For us, it was just Cheryl and I and her mother.  There were just a few gifts, several for Cheryl to unwrap and enjoy.  My big gift this year was parked in the carport, waiting for my commute to work.  We were able to link with family via video calls, and enjoyed interacting with our grandkids, who are growing up entirely too fast.  Still, I missed being there; getting the hugs, wading through the sea of wrapping paper, actually talking face-to-face, the lack of for which I feel a growing sadness.  Children are fluid creatures.  They change minute to minute, and being away for months -- or years -- at a time leaves us with the inescapable sense that time is leaching away, the one thing nobody can ever get back.  They'll never be this young again, and we will have missed it all.

I suspect many of you are having some of the same feelings.  This COVID Christmas was hard, but I think there is a bit of wisdom being dropped upon us.

I've written before about how each family has its traditions, mostly involving mass gatherings.  Games are played, songs are sung, food is prepared and devoured, and with so many hands involved, the cleanup probably takes twice as long.  Once the kids have run out of steam and are safely and warmly bundled into their beds, it becomes time for the adults to talk, probably around a card game or something similar.  We share things best not heard by young ears, and seek each other's counsel.  This is when parents and their grown children reconnect, and you just can't do that well over a computer.

Yes, there was a tree; and there were presents.  But it just didn't feel like Christmas.

With so much denied to us this year, I tried to find any kind of silver lining to this dark cloud.  I thought back to my growing up and all the things we did connected to Christmas.  I found that in those recollections that I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about why there is a Christmas at all.

About 2,000 years ago -- historians still argue about the exact date -- a baby was born to a Jewish couple who, having arrived in Jerusalem during a census count, could not find a room at any Inn.  One Innkeeper's wife, taking pity on a young wife obviously about to deliver, allowed the couple to take refuge in a cave, normally used as a stable.  There, during the night, the child was born healthy, no mean feat given the state of medical care at that time.  According to the Bible, a star appeared in the sky over the stable, a sign from God that this birth was something truly special.  Shepherds left their flocks in the fields to come to the birth site, sent by a announcement given by a heavenly host that the long-awaited Messiah had finally arrived.  Some months later, Magi, Zoroastrian astrologers and philosophers probably from Persia, arrived to pay homage to the child with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Having heard from those same Magi that a possible challenger to his throne had been born, Herod ordered the Slaughter of the Innocents, the death of all male children two years or younger.  Having been warned in a dream, the young couple fled to Egypt where they stayed until Herod died.

The boy grew into a man, and began a ministry that would literally change the world.  Pronounced by God to he His son at his baptism, the young man, Jesus, began three years during which he traveled the countryside, preaching, teaching, healing, forgiving sin, raising from the dead, and in general being a thorough thorn in the side of the Jewish authorities of the day.  Eventually, they contrived a plot where Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified in fulfillment of prophesy.  This act of sacrifice cleansed the sins of all, and His resurrection three days later, provided the promise of eternal life to all.

It is easy, I think, to let all that slide under the pile of other things which demand our attention during this time.  I got to thinking that perhaps this was one of the benefits of a COVID Christmas, that relieved of the pile of traditions, we might actually take the time to remember why there is a Christmas.

Not having to worry about travel, lodging, buying a preparing enormous meals, playing games, watching football, and all the other things normally associated with "the holidays," means that we are freed to think about that child, what He meant and continues to mean to a world cloaked in darkness.  We can think about the beauty of His teachings, and the continuing joy of the Gospel.  We can remember that even a child born to indigent parents in a barn has a promise that overwhelms the apparent limitations of His beginnings.

Instead of all the distractions, we can focus on the four most important things:  Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love.  

And who can argue that those four attributes are in anything but short supply?