December 21, 2009
Let the Little Children Come
This year my four year-old Granddaughter put Jesus on her Christmas list. Her mother explained to her that she didn’t need to actually buy something for Jesus, but that even giving someone a drink of cold water could be similar to giving Jesus a present. Armed with her own money and her shopping list, I took Lydia to the dollar store. She picked out a roll of painter’s masking tape for her Daddy, iced animal cookies for 86 year-old Great-grandmother Ruth and a wine glass for Granddad. I thought we’d completed our shopping when Lydia informed me there was still one more, she still had to get something for Jesus. When I tried to reason with her she simply said, “Hmmm. We need to find the stuff for boys.” A shoe shine kit really took her fancy, and it took a little convincing on my part that Jesus didn’t shine his sandals. She finally decided that something in the food isle might work, because Jesus did feed people. The wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh…Lydia’s Spaghettio’s should fit right in.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----Some people don’t exchange presents on Christmas. Instead, they buy presents for poor people in the neighborhood. Other people exchange presents while bemoaning the commercialism of Christmas. Yet others consider the entire celebration to be an aberration, and they neither decorate for the event nor give any gifts at all. If we visited those who do celebrate Christmas, we would find a variety of subtle differences in the way they do it from house to house, and greater differences from culture to culture.
-----What pleasure might Jesus take in all of our Christmas activities? If He took pleasure in the things we do or in the ways we do them, He would certainly be displeased with many of us. Where there is much difference in what we do and how we do it, only some could be right if there were only certain practices or manners that He considered correct. But there was a certain tone in all of Jesus’ teaching which indicated He was interested in something deeper than things and actions. People have stuff and do things for reasons. Within the scope of not having bad stuff and not doing wrong things, the thoughts and feelings of our reasons form the sincerity and meaning of our ownership and activities. These are what interests Jesus.
-----So even if Jesus didn’t like Spaghettio’s (which I think would be an absolute stretch of the imagination,) I believe He would receive them with genuine joy. First: because Lydia was sincerely joyful in believing they would be pleasing to Him. And not just since she is a child. Jesus does not hold to our hypocritical division between child and adult for qualifying the one for a greater love and the other for a lesser love. He loves everyone greatly; the joy He takes in what anyone does from a right heart is deep. And second: because someone is going to shovel those little o’s into their mouths and enjoy them to their heart’s delight.
-----Now, we all think that would not be Jesus eating the o‘s, and although we would be right physically speaking we would be wrong actually. Jesus told us how to touch Him and please Him in Matthew 25:31-46. This passage gets passed around a lot for a variety of purposes, but it’s simple message has to do with a concept called, in geek speak, intersubjective empathy. Where empathy is experiencing the thirst of another through understanding his thirst, intersubjective empathy is not satisfied until you have then filled a canteen with water and given it to him. So it is simply the love that Jesus preached. And doing it to another does it to Him.
-----So I love the Christmas gift exchange. I try to understand the one for whom I shop and try to buy something I think will be genuinely pleasing to him. And I receive with pleasure anything that is given to me. Knowing that Jesus is the Master of intersubjective empathy, I know that expressing this love to another is expressing it to Him, so giving a gift to another is giving it to Him. And in as much as we daily understand the needs of those around us and find whatever we might have to meet them, everyday is Christmas. Therefore, whatever is the can of Spaghettio’s you give to Jesus for Christmas, know that He has the perfect can opener for getting into it. Be sure that He will enjoy it as sincerely as you meant it.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
PS
-----Please allow me to add a word concerning the commercialism of Christmas. I have never harbored bitterness towards the commercialism of our Western Christmas tradition. This recent recession may help you to understand why. I know my oldest daughter likes to dress attractively. So when I asked her what sizes she wore, she was sure to tell me as well that Silvers Jeans fit her the best. Great! I knew exactly what would really make her happy. I figured they were probably a little expensive, and that was all the better! Since I knew she could then less afford them, they would be all the more meaningful to her.
-----When I arrived at Maurice’s to buy her Silvers Jeans, I entered the store hoping these people were doing well in their business. There was a franchise owner trying to put food on his table through this store, and there were employees trying to feed their children buy working for that owner. God bless their needs. And when I finally found those Silvers Jeans and saw how much they cost, I knew some factory owner would be putting rather good food on his family’s table. But he had developed a product many people obviously liked, and they apparently were finding a way to afford these jeans, because there were a lot of them on the racks. And my daughter was going to be happy too! As I carried them to the check out, I understood that some denim weaver put food on his family’s table by producing the material, and the factory workers put food on their families’ tables by sewing up the jeans, and some clothing distributor put food on his family’s table by making these jeans available to the local stores, and some trucker put food on his family’s table by hauling this pair of jeans to this store so I could buy them for my daughter to feel good.
-----And how much one or the other of all these might profit from my purchase of this pair of jeans was no concern of mine. For I know that the gauge for measuring my neighbor’s greed is my own envy. I realize that some who’ve found a greater opportunity are wealthier than I as much as I am wealthier than some who buy my services. My measurement of the greed of those prospering more than I is the same measure by which I am greedy to my less fortunate clients. I must remember that I also serve clients more wealthy than I whom I must no more despise than the Silvers Jeans makers should despise their more wealthy customers.
-----For the concern of the Lord is not the wealth or poverty of each heart that must put food on a table. It is the sight of that heart affixed upon the truth, and the intersubjective empathy which flows from that truth. So in as much as my bought jeans has contributed to the food of many tables, God bless the hearts eating of those tables, God bless the industry supplying those tables, God bless Christmas in all the ways it is experienced, and God bless the activities of all our days.
Love you all;
Steve Corey
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