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Think back at how you felt when something you highly valued was treated as valueless by someone else. A couple of years ago I was talking to a mother of three toddlers who lived in an upscale neighborhood in Southern California. She shared with me just one of those situations. She was preparing dinner when she started to realize that the upstairs toilet had been flushed several times. After the tenth or so flush, she decided it would be wise to see what was going on. She went upstairs to find her four year old boy just finishing putting her last piece of diamond jewelry into the toilet and pushing the silver lever. What was so valuable to her was simply an object of a passing thrill to her young son. You can imagine the horror on that poor mother’s face!
As a Christian who takes his faith seriously, who values Christ more than anything else on this earth, it is often difficult to see how Christ is treated (or ignored) at his time of year. It is Christmastime, yet it is obvious that for the most part, if the name Christ was removed from the name, most would not even notice. In fact more often than not, this time of year is becoming known as just the “holiday season”. To many, the value of Christ is realized in the same vein as diamond jewelry to a four- year old boy. It would be easy for me to get angry at this, to be mad at those who take lightly or ignore Christ this time of year. It would be easy for the mother to be angry at her son for flushing all her jewelry down the toilet, but that wouldn’t solve the problem or improve the situation. The problem is that the young boy did not possess the life experiences that would have placed value in diamond jewelry. Many, if not most, people have not experienced Christ to understand His value for their lives.
Walt Hamilton illustrates this in a unique way. He writes, “imagine that somehow a book of [Robert] Browning’s poems fall in to the hands of a monkey. What would the monkey see in that book? Well, it’s not a matter of eyesight, his eyes are keener, he’s got keener eyesight than yours or mine. But he would see nothing in the book. He has life but he has no light. He has sensation but he has no perception. He might see it. He would probably smell it. He might tear at it. He might chew at it a little while and then he’d throw it away. Why? Because the monkey only brings to that, monkey sight, sensual sight. The meaning is not just in the book, it has to be in him. Now move up a step. Take up that same book of poetry and put it into the hands of a ten or twelve-year old boy. What would he see in it? Well, he would try to read it. Perhaps faltering, he could put words together, he could make the sounds, but since Browning is not quite Mother Goose, it’s doubtful that he would really get it, and he’d be bored by it. He might even tear up the pages to make paper airplanes. He’s building a fort for his toy soldiers and Browning’s poetry would make a nice fort. Yes, he has some mental perception, but not enough to understand. No, you have to put that book into the hands of an intelligent, sensitive, mature, understanding, person who has experienced some of the experiences of the poet. Then only will he be gripped by the book. Then only will his soul be lit up by it.”
We are all living among those with eyesight but no perception, perhaps some knowledge of Christ but no understanding of who He is. In many ways Christmas is like Browning’s book of poems falling into the hands of a monkey. When you realize this, you see that anger is not the solution. The Christian community is always fighting to keep Christ in Christmas. What about motivating our forces to go out into the world sharing the Gospel instead? What about showing the love of Christ to others without expected profit? What about living the Christian life as an example to the world? Why would we expect one to value something of which they have no experience?
Robert Browning’s wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, put a little note in his pocket one morning at breakfast. She told him that once he read it, if he didn’t like it, just to throw it away. The little note became one of the most beautiful and noblest lines of love poetry ever written by a woman to the man that she loved:
"The face of all the world has changed for me
Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul."
We can put Christ back into Christmas by sharing Christ with a searching world. The face of the world will change through lives lived for Christ!
"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men, With whom He is pleased." Luke 2:14
Trinity Baptist Church
711 Fairview Dr. Moscow, Idaho 83843
208.882.2015
trinity@moscow.com
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Pastor Dan Bailey
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711 Fairview Dr.
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