Christmas

Merry Christmas, my friends!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the date that’s quickly approaching.  Since it’s now the 16th, most of my brain waves have been spent trying to figure out what I’m going to get for whom, and whether stealing is an acceptable way to procure my gifts, being the poor college student that I am.  At the same time, I’ve been making lists and thinking about about the kinds of things that I hope to get.  All of this has caused me to reflect on the idea of Christmas and how the earth-shattering event that we celebrate through Christmas alters the way that we think about gifts and toys and things.

The biggest struggle for me up here at William Jessup has been being away from my family and friends in Reno.  While I’ve been blessed with an absolutely amazing community up here (I’m writing this blog in a tiny coffee shop down-town, hanging out with some of my favorite buddies), I still miss the family that I left in Reno.  Indeed, I’ve never been away from so many of my family and friends for such an extended period of time…and that’s sort of hard, sometimes.  As I’ve been mulling over all of this for the last couple days, I’ve realized that the thing I’m most excited about for Christmas break is the people that I’m going to visit.  In the midst of Christmas lists and gift ideas and shopping and greed, I’ve been hit with the realization that if I don’t get any new things this Christmas, I’ll still have the best Christmas of my life.  Because I’m going to see my family and my friends.  I’m going eat with them and play games with them and laugh with them and watch movies with them and hug them.  We’re going to get together when I get home and we’re going to be humans together.  And that’s going to be good.  Because that’s what we were created to do together.  I can tell, because when I think about it, my chest starts thumping and my brain starts twirling and I get excited.  Being humans together is how we express our love for each other.

And that’s really what we’re celebrating on the day that’s coming up here in a little over a week…isn’t it?  God saw that we needed life, and he came down to give it to us.

As a human.

He came down as a baby, who cried and laughed and smiled and had to be fed by his mother.  He came down to hang out with us.  He came down to play games with us, and laugh, and hug, and eat and party with us.  He came down to be a human with us.  And he did that because he’s crazy about us.  Because when he thinks about seeing us, his chest starts to thump a little and his mind starts spinning like nothing else.  Because that’s how we’re created to love each other, and he created us in his image.

So, as we wade through Christmas lists and reams of wrapping paper and crazy store crowds and credit card bills…maybe we should think about ways to be human together?

Nice things are really fun and cool and appealing and good–that’s what makes them nice things.  It’s been pretty easy for me to get caught up in the world of nice things, up at Jessup where there a lot of really nice people–who I have begun to love–with a lot really nice things.  And there’s not really anything wrong with that…in moderation.  But what if we’re picking the wrong day to focus on nice things?  We have 364 other days to spend in the world of nice things…worrying about how to get more of them or how to get less of them…worrying about what to buy for whom, or whether stealing them is okay…worrying about whether we should worry about them.

What if on Christmas day, in memory of our savior who came down to be a human with us, we simply worried about being human with each other?  What if that was our gift to each other?  What if we really celebrated what we say when we call “Jesus the reason for the season”?

This year, that is what I want to shoot for.  And yeah, I’ll still give some gifts to some loved ones.  And I’m sure I’ll receive my fair share, as well.  But if being up at Jessup has taught me anything this semester, it’s that we can be humans in the midst of worrying about really nice things.  All it takes is some talking and laughing and hugging and eating.  So I’m going to go out of my way to give those kind of gifts, too.  Because that’s the kind of gift that Jesus gave me…and when I think about that, my chest starts thumping.

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