Christmas comes anyway
In two timeless Christmas stories from the past two centuries, misanthropes Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch show their contempt for the world’s greatest holiday season.
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843), the heartless banker Scrooge’s response to “Merry Christmas” is “Bah! Humbug!” For Scrooge, Christmas is a fraud.
In the 1957 Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch, his heart “two sizes too small,” tries to “prevent Christmas from coming” by stealing all the presents from Whoville. Scrooge and the Grinch have much to learn, and they do, because these are stories of redemption.
Imagine yourself as a character in these two tales. What roles would you play? Is there a little Ebenezer Scrooge in your view of Christmas? Would the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet To Come have to educate you to change your heart and mind?
Or perhaps there’s a bit of the Grinch in you, looking in from the outside, and the joy of Christmas festivities only makes you envious. Maybe you bemoan the commercialization of Christmas, ignoring all that is good and bright about the season.
Even after the Grinch steals the presents and decorations from Whoville, of course, the singing and celebration continue. Christmas is more than presents and decorations, and the Grinch’s heart grows large as he learns and acts on that knowledge. The Grinch returns the presents. In the Dickens story, Scrooge opens his heart to Tiny Tim and the Cratchit family on Christmas Day. For Scrooge, and for the Grinch, it is not too late to join in the magic of the season.
As I think back on the Christmases past in my own life, whether as a child or adult, I realize that no matter what was going on in my own life at the time, no matter how open or closed my heart was in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, one thing always happened. Christmas came anyway. It arrived, right on schedule. Nothing I could do would delay it, or speed its arrival. You could depend on it.
The Christian calendar begins with four weeks of preparation for Christmas, the season of Advent. It blends with the secular observance of the holiday season, of course, and our days are filled with shopping and wrapping presents, with wonderful music and food and lights and good will, and above all, with anticipation.
Christmas Eve arrives, one more time. No matter what darkness and despair threaten our world, a light shines in the darkness, and our hearts and minds surrender to the awe and wonder of this amazing season. For Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch, and for all of us, Christmas comes anyway. It is a good time for redemption.
