Fourth Sunday of Advent
From Wilshire Advent Devotions 2011
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child.”
I celebrated Christmas like a child, too, which is fine because there is a wide strand of wonder and excitement woven through the Christmas holiday tailor-made for children. It engages their senses, and with the right nurturing it connects them to the true meaning of Christmas in a way they can understand. The hope, of course, is that children will embrace that meaning—the gift of “God with us”—and the relationships we can have with each other through Christ.
Two early memories are mile markers on my journey through this changing perspective.
First, I was sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by toys and wrapping paper, and I looked up to see my grandfather sitting on the sofa with a couple of thin boxes in his lap. I could see socks and a necktie poking out of the tissue paper. I remember feeling a wave of sadness at the fact that he had received only two gifts, and neither one exciting at all. I felt like I could cry for him.
Second, one pair of grandparents was in the house, and I was anxiously watching out the window for the others to arrive. When asked what I was doing, I said: “It’s not Christmas until everyone is here.” I wasn’t waiting for them to arrive so we could open gifts; I just wanted them there with us. Such is the transformation we go through as we grow from children into adults. We no longer crave toys and things; we long for relationships.
Even so, we still can get stuck in childish ways. Without the love (or “charity,” as it sometimes is translated) Paul writes about, our relationships can be immature. We can focus solely on what we receive from others—attention, praise, approval, validation—and overlook what we can give of ourselves. We also can forget that sometimes the best part of a relationship is not the giving or receiving; sometimes it is just being together.
Looking back on that early Christmas memory, there is one more piece of the story: I recall the sound of my grandfather’s hoarse laugh as he watched us kids playing under the Christmas tree. I understand now that the necktie and socks were appreciated, but the gift he loved most was just being with us.
Lord, help me embrace the gift of your Son with the enthusiasm of a child and share it through my relationships with the love and wisdom of an adult. Amen.