Eleven years ago I did a little Christmas piece and it
seemed like a good idea to repeat it. The basis for this tremendous burst of
buying things and gift buying and parties and near hysteria is a quiet event
that Christians believe actually happened a long time ago. You can say that in
all societies there has always been a midwinter festival and that many of the
trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan. But you come back to the
central fact of the day and the quietness of Christmas morning, the birth of
God on earth.
It leaves you only three ways of accepting Christmas. One is
cynically, as a time to make money and endorse the making of it. One is
graciously, that’s the appropriate attitude for non-Christians who wish their
fellow citizens all the joys to which their beliefs entitle them. And the
third, of course, is reverently.
If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of
the universe in the form of a helpless babe, it is a very important day. It is
a startling idea, of course. The whole story that a virgin was selected by God
to bear his son as a way of showing his love and concern for man. It’s my guess
that in spite of all the lip service given to it, it’s not an idea that has
been popular with theologians. It is somewhat an illogical idea and theologians
like logic almost as much as they like God. It’s so revolutionary, a thought
that it probably could only come from God that is beyond logic and beyond
theology. It is a magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God and almost
nobody has any real idea what he is like, and the truth is that among men the
idea of seeing God suddenly and standing in a very bright light is not
necessarily a completely comforting or appealing idea.
But everyone has seen babies and almost everyone likes them.
If God wanted to be loved as well as feared, He moved correctly, for a baby
growing up learns all about people. And if God wanted to be intimately a part
of man, He moved correctly, for the experience of birth and family-hood is the
most intimate and precious experience that any of us will ever have.
So it comes beyond logic. It is either a falsehood or it is
the truest thing in the world. It is the story of the great innocence of God
the baby. God in the power of man has such a dramatic shock toward the heart
that if it is not true to Christians, then nothing is true.
So if a person is touched only once a year, the touching is
still worth it. And maybe on some given Christmas some final quiet morning,
that touch will take. The touch of God coming into this world as a vulnerable
baby. - Harry Reasoner
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