“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”
A couple of weeks ago I reread A Christmas Carol, the classic story by Charles Dickens. I read the actual book for the first time last December, and it’s a short read, so I decided I’d make it a yearly rhythm to revisit it every Advent season soon before Christmas. I’ve seen the different movie adaptations of it so many times, but reading it especially reminds me of the grace of Christmas—the way Jesus comes into our midst, draws us to Himself, and charges us to love the world as he loves us.
We still use “Scrooge” colloquially to refer to grumps who hate Christmas cheer, but when I think of Scrooge I think about a man whose life changed radically when he was met by three Spirits, encounters which initially terrified him but turned out to be acts of grace. Scrooge ultimately becomes generous, hospitable, and honest—“He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew,” and people even “laughed to see the alteration in him,” because he was so different from the Scrooge they once knew. After his time with the Spirits, he raises his employee’s salary, buys his family a Christmas feast, and donates generously to those in need. I cannot help but think of the rich young man in Mark 10 when I read about Scrooge’s heart change. The young man asks Jesus what to do to inherit eternal life, given that he’s always kept all the commandments. Jesus tells him, “‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’” Mark tells us that the young man is “disheartened” and “sorrowful,” and he walks away from Jesus because of his great wealth. Scrooge, to me, feels like the rich young man had he not walked away.
So here’s to 2023, and here’s to Christmas all year long—may we remember the grace of God with and among us everyday, not just in December. At church on New Year’s Day, we sang Christmas carols, because that’s something worth remembering and celebrating all the time.
“For my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.” — Luke 2:30-32
Merrily,
Derren Lee