... Whirr when it Stands Still

“Christmas is for children.”  

We’ve heard it so many times, haven't we?  Often it’s really an excuse.  When we allege that this is a season which is only relevant to children, we are attempting to explain why we, as adults, no longer take part in the festive celebrations.  You can hear it in your ears as you read these lines, can't you? "Oh, they're just children's games." "It's all right for the children, but ..."

I think the real reason for this reticence is likely to be that, having passed out of our own childhood (so long ago that we can no longer remember what it was really like!) we’ve lost any sense of mystery. For The story of Christmas is all about mystery.  Who can truly explain what it was like to have been in that stable, or on that hillside, and to discover that there is something very special, something unique, about this tiny new-born baby?

It's bad enough two milennia later trying to get our minds around it, but to have been there, to explain what actually happened - 'mystery' is the only word for it.  And the trouble is, the more we hear it, the more we try to fathom it out, the more familiar the story becomes, the less we really understand, because we've lost with our childhood the capacity to appreciate mystery.  In a way, it’s like reading the end of a detective novel.  It can only be a mystery once; as soon as we've read it, the key to the puzzle is known; the spell is broken.

Among the songs made popular a few years ago by the Irish singer Val Doonican, was a ditty about a Marvellous Toy.  It told of a toy that had been passed down from grandfather to father and from father to son.  This toy made a number of different noises, which were added to the refrain by the singer according to his ability: “It goes [ring] when it starts, and [click] when it stops, and [whirr] when it stands still; I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never will.”  The mystery of Christmas is a bit like that.  We can’t define precisely what it is, but perhaps the wide-open eyes of a child, seeing a new toy for the first time, is a good example of that same emotion.

In the oh-so-busy, 24/7 lifestyle of the twenty-first century, when our senses can embrace so much and treat it as commonplace, it is increasingly difficult to get our heads round the idea of something as unknown and awesome as the experience of the shepherds on the hillside that Luke tells us about.  How can we imagine the wonder, taste the mystery, and feel the tingle of excitement they must have felt as the angels told them that the full glory of God was on the point of becoming reality in their humble world?

A verse which doesn’t often feature in our Christmas readings is Mark 10:15: “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  I believe it has a particular relevance in our present age, when childhood is so quickly extinguished and ‘teenage’ begins ever earlier.  Let us allow ourselves, if only at this one time of the year, to be taught by our children.  Let them show us, as only children can, something of the simple joy and wonder of Christmas.  Let our busy lives stand still for a moment, so that we can feel the ‘whirr’ of God’s tremendous love in our hearts.

May all my readers know the joy of a truly blessed Christmas.