“Oh. And what is the true meaning of Christmas?”
“Christmas should be more about giving than receiving.”
I thought about that for a minute. It didn’t sit right with me. It seems like it is a sanitized, ethical doctrine of the feel good gospel of holy whateverism.
I said, “Not me. I think Christmas is all about receiving gifts. And the more we understand the true meaning of Christmas, the more we will receive.”
“Huh?”
“The last line of the Christmas Carol ‘Joy to the World’ says, ‘Let earth receive her King.’ “
“The earth is a girl?”
“That’s beside the point.”
“But it said ‘her King.’ “
“You are a thinker. But we aren't talking about that. We're talking about the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus was a gift to the world. How do we receive him?”
“So are there boy planets and girl planets?”
At that point my wife started laughing and the conversation was done. The thought and the smile remain.
People shrug off the commercial aspect of Christmas by buying stuff for others. Others think about the gifts they can bring to the manger, like a pair of mittens on a tree, or a drummer drumming pah-rumpa-pum-pum. But the angels didn’t sing hosanna for the gifts I bring to the manger or the gifts I give to others. They said, “Glory to God in the highest” because God has given a gift to all mankind, “that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Bring on the presents. May I receive Them.
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