The paradox of the Incarnation is not just for the very young…
“Great is the mystery of the gifts! For this visible infant, who seems so young, who needs swaddling clothes for His body, who in the substance which we see is newly born, is the Eternal Son, as it is written, the Son who is the Maker of all, the Son who binds together in the swathing-bands of His assisting power the whole creation which would otherwise be dissolved.”
Random thought for the Christmas Alliance: Christmas is not for children. Oh, that’s one of the meme-themes we start hearing around this time of year, but by virtue of its categorical nature, it is simply false.
“Angel trees” for children in needy families, “toy drives” for the same purpose, MASSIVE pushes by toy sellers, Christmas programs featuring child after talentless child (or children in whom the talent bug has been well and truly squashed by teaching that doesn’t help them develop their talents but instead “clelebrates” incompetence**, blah, blah, blah.
Sometimes I/m tempted to think the spread of that meme is purposed to trivialize Christmas, but nah, it’s just a result of the general dumbing down of society. Yes, Christmas is for children, but it’s not just for children—or even “the child in all of us” as some would have it.
No. Christmas is for everyone, but especially for adults. And I don’t mean chronological adults who are still refusing to grow up (“grups”?). I mean people who see behind the tinsel and wrapping paper and gimme, gimme, gimme spirit of contemporary commercial “Christmas” to the wonder of the paradoxical Incarnation. See it and realize that giving of themselves is the only way to honor that Incarnation, that first giant step in the greatest gift given.
So, for those of y’all who are adults and do see behind the curtain of tinsel, wrapping paper and gimme spirit to the Incarnation all of that strives to hide, here’s a suggestion for some gifts to give in the season of Advent and Christmas:
Give the present of your presence. really be WITH your family and friends. Listen to them and respond to their needs, desires, hopes and aspirations. be there in that same sense with anyone who is trapped on the other side of the curtain of tinsel and wrapping paper and gimme, gimme, gimme spirit of contemporary commercial “Christmas”—listen to them and respond with a revelation of the Incarnation, in large part by responding as well as you can to their needs, desires, hopes and aspirations.
And always, always do what you can to let the children you meet, no matter what their age, see a bit of the true wonder of Christmas hidden behind the curtain of their quotidian lives: the paradoxical wonder of the Incarnation.
Here’s where you start:
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. —Philippians 2:5–11
