"When the angels went away from them into
heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to
us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby
lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had
been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the
shepherds told them. Luke 2:15-19 ESV
The worst side
effect of the over-commercialization of Christmas is that we have been so
bombarded by it that Christmas has lost its wonder. Christmas is supposed to be a time of holy
contemplation and rejoicing. Instead, it has become a time of busyness,
overindulgence, and debt.
This was brought
home to me years ago when I was shopping for Christmas toys on a rainy evening
in December. Traffic was awful. The stores were crowded, and all the best
gifts had already disappeared from the shelves.
I was shopping in a dirty department store full of crabby people and I
wasn't much better myself. I was
questioning as I often do, whether the spiritual benefits of the season
outweighed the social and moral excesses, the elevated anxiety levels, or the
endless frustrations. That evening I was
thinking that they didn't and I was preparing to bet a quick retreat to home,
just as soon as I found that one last gift for the kids.
I was standing in
the aisle of the store, next to a line of picked over Christmas decoration. My
eyes fell on a cheap plastic ornament, a Christmas bell, hanging from a bare
hook between the plastic tinsel and a garish green garland. There was a string coming out of the bottom,
with a little knob on the end. Curiosity
overcame me, and I pulled it . Somewhere inside, it began to make music. Though it was too slow and off key, I could
make out the strains of "Silent night."
Maybe I was tired.
Maybe I was just nostalgic for something real about the season, but as I listened to that squeaky sound, the words of the carol leapt to mind.
"Silent night,
holy night,
All is calm all is
bright
Round yon virgin,
mother and child
Holy infant so
tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly
peace."
The words affected
me deeply. Here in this department store, among the cheesy replicas of snowmen
and Santas, I could still hear the words of Franz Gruber's immortal hymn. Heavenly peace was here at the core of it, and
no amound of tinsel and red-nosed reindeer could every completely obscure
it. Christmas is the time of Christ's
coming, a time of heavenly peace.
There are two ways
of finding peace at Christmas. One way is to walk away from all the hassles and
commercialism, and just not celebrate it at all. Stick to God and find peace.
The other way is to recognize that peace endures, even among the busyness of life.
At the heart of the season is a peace that passes all understanding. If we take the time to look behind the
messiness of the season, we can still find the Christ child sleeping in
heavenly peace.
"Father, open out hearts to find the peace of
the season in Christ--that peace that passes all understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen."
