December 20 “It is more blessed to give than receive.”

It is also a whole lot easier.‘Tis the season! I don’t bemoan the tinsel and the twinkling lights, the commercial hype or the self-induced hysteria. I love this time of year.I do, however, mourn the loss of one important element of the Christmas season. It is the gift of receiving gifts with grace. It has become more and more apparent to me that many of us have lost the ability to gracefully accept the gifts of others.Have you noticed?Someone gives you a gift and immediately you are frantically trying to decide what to buy them in return. Someone else invites you over to their home for dinner and before you finish the appetizer you have already made plans to return the favor. The very thought of receiving a gift has become overshadowed by the heavy burden of obligation.This sad state of affairs has permeated every aspect of our lives…including our faith.”I don’t take charity!” is a statement of pride in our society.”There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” we piously tell our children.”God helps those who help themselves!” we claim with certainty.
We continue to teach and to believe that we must not be beholden to anyone. We cling to the American ideal of rugged individualism. We pull our own weight and need help from no one.Yet Christianity is based on the grace-filled gift of God in Jesus Christ. Unmerited and undeserved, this gift comes to us without any strings attached. The God who is love simply seeks to share that love with each of us. It is a gift, in the true sense, without obligation.That makes us very uncomfortable. It goes against what we really believe.Nothing can be that good.The Good News is too good to be true.But that is what the Christmas season is precisely about. It is the reason that gifts are offered. They are symbols of that most precious gift, symbols of grace.How wonderful it would be if this Christmastide we could all capture the true spirit of this special time and allow ourselves to accept with grace and not guilt, with words of rejoicing and not reciprocity.How wonderful it would be to put Christ back in Christmas.

A note on receiving gifts. Ever noticed how hard it is to accept positive attention? Like compliments either on your person or on your apparel? How you start mentally scraping your feet, embarrassed, if someone gives you attention that is not negative?

Christmas is a matter of positive attention, of God saying “I see you, and what I see is good, very good”. Christ didn’t come to be adored, have a baby shower with foreign guest and cause a ruckus among the shepherds. Christ came to look at you with the all-wise purple eyes of a baby, imprinting you with an eternal “I see you, and what I see is Good, very Good”. That is the message of Christmas.

Unfortunately, for you, the majority of Christians, rather than understanding and proclaiming this, will give you all the negative attention that you are already accustomed to. That’s because they too have trouble receiving positive attention, so they will give you the best they have and all they have received is negative attention. They will focus on how sinful, depraved (have you noticed how they just love to use words like “depravity”, “debauchery”, “perversion” etc when describing human life?), corrupt and evil you are, simply because you were born (as if you didn’t already feel that in your bones). Then they will tell you that because of this “depravity”, “debauchery”, “perversion” which God, (or really their idol of Him) according to them wallows in hate of (they seem to be wallowing along with their idol of Him too), you need to be celebrating Christmas and sing “Come let us adore Him…” You know, I’d go crazy if people came to my Birthday Party and sang “Come let us adore Him…” or some such musical expressions. Don’t believe them. God and Christ isn’t like that. Trust me I have been around them for a very long time.

Look into the all-wise purple eyes of a baby, any baby, and accept its message of “I see you, and what I see is Good, very Good”, then go home, put some tinsel in the window, light a candle….write a letter to someone you care about, read a passage from your favorite book, have a snack and a long conversation with those baby-purple eyes that looks deep into you and says “I see you, and what I see is Good, very Good”, then accept this positive attention with a simple “thank you…”

May the Blessing of Baby-Purple Eyes be with you forever,

Henry