Making the Best of Things

One Christmas a few years ago, after I had gotten a raise and life
was getting a little more comfortable for us, Joy and I decided that
we would give the children their best Christmas ever.  We wanted to
make up for some of the Christmases when we couldn't afford to give
them much.  We bought them each several gifts and wrapped them in
bright packages and assembled quite an impressive display spilling out
from under the Christmas tree.
 
The kids were little more than toddlers back then, impatiently
awaiting their day of "wreck"-oning on the packages. Finally,
Christmas morning came and they gleefully tore the wrapping paper into
tatters, revealing their booty.  In addition to the gifts they each
received, Joy had bought one "big" gift for them to share: a toy
kitchen set.
 
After all the pictures were taken and the paper cleared from the
floor, our girls set about the task of playing.  Curiously, they spent
most of their time playing in the big cardboard box in which the stove
had come.  All that preparation and expense lavished on the children
and they played with the package!
 
Our children taught us some lessons about Christmas. How often have
we missed the fact that God poured out His most extravangant Gift on
us, only to find us playing with the decorations, programs, and
packages that we associate with Christmas?
 
On another Christmas, during the Great Depression, my grandparents
could only afford to give their son one gift: a set of colored paints.
That Christmas, Sonny got his present early so that they could
decorate walnut shells, which they hung as ornaments on the tree.
Even the tree was given to them.  They made the best with what was
available to them. They didn't seem to mind about their circumstances
because it was Christmas and together they painted Christmas in colors
of simple beauty.
 
On the first Christmas, Joseph and Mary scrambled for a place to
give birth. All the rooming houses were filled to capacity.  Labor was
intesifying; Jesus was on the way. All that was available to receive
the King of kings was a stable and a manger.
 
The scene was very unlike the attractive creshes we enjoy during the
Advent season.  The accomdations for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were very
common, ordinary, and downright dirty.  But Jesus didn't seem to mind
about the accomodations.  God painted the meager surroundings of
Christ's birthing room with a simple beauty of its own.  That's
because the presence of God sanctifies the common, ordinary, and
downright dirty.
 
Christ identifies with the most humble among us and yet deserves the
kingly gifts of gold, frankincense, and myhrr.  Whether we have
plenty, or very little, Jesus can take what we have available to Him
and make the best of it. He brings beauty and value into our lives by
His sanctifying power, if we don't get too caught up playing with the
package.