Dec 23, 2007
Christmas Is About Losing
I was just thinking about Jesus tonight. I asked God to hold me in awe of Christmas, of the incarnation, of the unfolding of his salvation plan.
It may have happened.
What if Christmas has far more to do with losing, giving away, and outright poverty than anything else? While it’s true that we traditionally give gifts, there is this flip side of getting what we want. So if anything, Christmas is about maintaining an equal balance. We give gifts to people who are giving gifts to us and everything balances out, each left in the same place as before.
Nothing changes, only we let other people buy things for us that we wouldn’t normally go out and purchase.
But the Christmas story is about God emptying himself, becoming poor, risking it all, and becoming a part of creation in order to make us rich, spiritually rich that is. In other words, God takes a “loss” and we score a “gain.” The rich becomes poor and the poor become rich.
Such a thought is startling to me.
We can keep the evening out, balanced approach to Christmas because it’s fun and because it’s now part of our North American tradition. It’s not mandatory, but it’s certainly not wrong.
But what seems to be mandatory is the need to give to those who cannot give back, to give in such a way that redemption and justice can happen. Wouldn’t it be amazing to give because of what God has done? What a fantastic way to embody and share the Gospel.
What a needed perspective. You would think that we would emphasize this more, wouldn’t you – especially considering passages like Philippians 2.
[Reply]