Everyone's Included


I love the Christmas season.  I love it for the magic that it brings to my otherwise messy life.  I love it because it forces me to slow down in a way and focus.  Not because it brings less activity (in fact quite the opposite) but because it focuses my activity and my thoughts in one direction.

When we moved to China years ago, we decided that we would need to start a purposeful set of traditions to keep the Christmas spirit alive for our family in a country that doesn’t even celebrate Christmas as a holiday.   Without a candlelight Christmas eve service, or children’s Christmas pageant, or neighborhoods filled with Christmas lights we wanted to be sure that our own celebration of Christmas didn’t’ get lost.  And we also wanted to be sure that our kids understood in a real and deep way what Christmas was all about.  The only parts of Christmas that have translated to this place are the commercial aspects, but we wanted to be sure that wasn’t what they thought of when Christmas came rolling around. 

So began our family observance of Advent.  With our candles out each night we retell the Christmas story and it’s significance for each other in as many ways as there are days.  As our children have grown they now tell it to us and we tell it back to them.  Each year I feel like a part of the story captivates my attention and draws me in.  This year what has caught at my heart is the incredible difference between the shepherds and the magi.    

Although in my nativity scene both the Shepherds and the Magi look sweet and picturesque, that isn’t what reality and history would tell us about the two.  Shepherds were the poorest of the poor in that time:  dirty, lowly, and uneducated.  They were the people nobody noticed.  They were the unlikeliest of candidates to receive a heavenly announcement of the birth of God’s son; the King of Kings, the long awaited Emmanuel.  The magi on the other hand were the best of the best; rich, educated, and wise.  They were the ones everyone took notice of.  It doesn’t seem quite as strange that God sent an announcement their way. 

I live in a land where the disparity between the rich and the poor is glaring and obvious.  It confronts me every single time I step out my front door.  Everyday I pass the people that society ignores, the lady who cleans my elevator, the woman who sells me fruit, the man who opens the gate for me.  They all live dollar to dollar, working day in and day out, 365 days of the year, out in the elements.  No one really takes notice of them unless they are in the way.  Meanwhile the streets are filled with BMW driving, Coach bag toting, wildly rich and important officials whose love of brand name everything makes sure you can’t help but notice them. The wide and gaping difference between the two groups regularly shocks me and leaves me shaking my head at the meaning of it all.  It leaves me feeling helpless. 

That’s why the chosen recipients of the announcement of Christ’s birth make me smile and feel a sense of wonder and relief.  The most important birth announcement in the history of the world didn’t just go out to the supposedly most important people on the earth at that time, it went first to the most unimportant ones, because this king would be different from all other kings before and after Him.  He came not just for the wealthy and the wise but also for the poor and overlooked.  If his arrival had been like that of any other king, those called to take notice would have been the equally wealthy, royal, wise, or important ones.  On the other hand if the invited ones were only the poor and weak, we could have assumed he came only for them.  But just to be sure that we knew that this king was for everyone, he invited first the humblest and then the highest to come and see.  In doing that he defied our expectations and reminded us that when God gave His most precious gift He gave it without reservation to each of us.  We rank people by what we can see; money, education, beauty, wisdom, wit, and power.  We tend to treat them accordingly.  God however isn’t bound by our petty list and instead He sees all of us as children that He created and desperately loves.  So when He set out to save us from our sin and ourselves, He did it with everything that He had, He gave us His most precious gift, His son.  And in case we would be tempted to assume that only the “important ones” were worthy to receive that gift, He started His announcements with a tiny group of people that weren’t even on anyone’s radar. 


In a day and age where the news daily bombards us with the arrogance of the “important” ones (the celebrities, the politicians, the religious leaders) and shocks us with the plight of the forgotten ones (the refugees, the war veterans, the orphans), it is good to be reminded that the only one whose opinion really matters in fact loves them all.  He can see right through them to their hearts and isn’t judging by appearance, situation, titles, citizenship, or any other rating system that we have devised.  Instead in this Christmas season we are reminded that the gift he offers is given freely and without reservation to any who would come and receive it.  That fills me with hope.  It inspires me to walk outside again and keep telling my story to anyone who will listen.  Because be they rich, poor, important, or overlooked, this gift is for them. 

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