Developing a Christmas Heart
Luke 2:15-20
Christmas is observed literally all over the world, and the traditions and customs are as varied as the countries in which they are found. In Australia, for example, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by eight white kangaroos. Christmas dinner is eaten outdoors and is followed by a visit to the beach or a game of cricket. In Germany, children decorate their Christmas lists with pictures and then leave them on the windowsill overnight, weighed down with a little sugar so they won’t be missed by Father Christmas.
The Christmas season begins December 16 in Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador. This is the first of nine nights of a celebration called Les Pasadas. Pasada is the Spanish word for lodging. The Christmas time pasadas are colorful processions or parades that re-enact Joseph and Mary’s search for an inn. At the head of each procession is a child dressed as an angel, followed by two more children dressed as Joseph and Mary. More angels, shepherds and three kings follow. Everyone carries a lit candle. As they walk, the participants sing special carols.
Eventually the procession stops at the house of a friend or family member. Joseph and Mary knock at the door, and ask for a room for the night. "Go away!" the people behind the door say. "My wife is with child and needs a place to rest," Joseph says. "Go away!" the people in the house shout. Finally Joseph reveals the fact that Mary is about to give birth to the Christ Child. The door opens and the procession goes in. After a prayer is said, the party begins. Piñatas, special candies, sandwiches, fruit punch, singing and games highlight the occasion.
A special tradition in Denmark is something called the “Christmas Heart,” an interwoven paper basket in the shape of a heart. It is made of red and white paper, which happen to be the colors of the Danish flag. These paper hearts are put on the Christmas tree or used as mobiles, and they are filled with candy and other goodies. The Christmas Heart is a traditional Danish symbol. Most Christmas trees, including the big tree in Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square, are decorated with red and white woven paper hearts.
It is believed that the first Christmas Heart may have been made by Hans Christian Andersen, who gave us 156 fairy tales, including “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and others. The very first one he made is still on display at his home in Denmark. April 2, 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth, and the logo for the celebration appropriately features a red heart with a fold right down the middle. It is said that the meaning of the Christmas Heart is to remind us of the love of Jesus towards all humanity, and that the candy inside the baskets represents the Christ Child inside the manger.
The Danish Christmas Heart is a piece of Christmas tradition that we do not practice here in the United States that much. Yet I wonder if we might not begin a greater tradition, one of making absolutely certain that each of us develops a true “Christmas Heart,” one deep inside us that won’t fade or go away. Harlan Miller once expressed a wish that “we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.” That might be a good thing, but it’s just wishful thinking. Wouldn’t it be much better if we could develop a true Christmas Heart instead?
So what is a Christmas heart? Let’s take a look at the original story, realizing that the real Christmas story is one that touches us in our hearts.
1. A Christmas heart is an eager heart, Luke 2:15-16
What thoughts must have flown through the minds of those shepherds right after the angels left them? We can’t even begin to imagine it. I’m sure there must have been several seconds when no one said anything. Then perhaps they all found their voices at the same time, and they said to each other, “Let’s go see this!”
Think of the things they must have seen, from beginning to end! It was an ordinary night, like hundreds and hundreds they had experienced before, when suddenly the darkness of the night sky was split with the brilliance of the glory of God and the appearance of the angel. The angel announced the birth of the Christ Child, and suddenly, “a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” What glorious sights for their mortal eyes to behold—things none of them had ever seen before—things none of us have ever seen in our entire lifetimes.
Yet was that enough? No! The announcements and declarations of the angels only served to stir up an eagerness inside the hearts of the shepherds to see more. They heard the announcement of the angel which told them they would find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Now they wanted to see for themselves!
Verse sixteen tells us that they wasted no time: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” More rational thought would have dictated that they wait until morning, to make sure that they had not been hallucinating. Or they might have questioned why such a monumental announcement should have been made to them, lowly shepherds as they were. None of that mattered.
A true Christmas Heart is one that is open and eager—yes, even hungry—to see and explore all the wonders God has in store for us. The person with a Christmas Heart is the person who is not content to merely hear about what Jesus has done for us—he wants to experience for himself. She doesn’t just want to imagine what it must be like—she wants to know it for herself.
What is God saying to you this Christmas? It probably won’t be through an army of angels as it was to the shepherds, but it is no less important. To develop a Christmas heart, each of us needs to cultivate an eagerness to explore the great things of God, to discover for ourselves what God is saying to us this Christmas and throughout the year. God loves us and He has something to say to each of us. Let us not be content to merely listen to what others say, but to enter into a personal quest to discover it for ourselves.
2. A Christmas Heart is a sharing heart, Luke 2:17-18
What did the shepherds do when they came to the manger? The Scriptures do not tell us. Were they typical males at a birth scene, awkward and feeling out of place? Perhaps. Did they do anything to help? Did they tell Joseph and Mary what they had seen out in the fields? We can guess, but we don’t know for certain. What we do know is that as soon as they left, they had one thing on their minds: this news was too good to sit on. It was news that had to be shared.
So we read beginning in verse 17: “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
The words “sharing” and “Christmas” just go together somehow. Those who would be delighted to ignore the birth of Christ, still try to make the meaning of Christmas about sharing and giving and love. Even removing Christ, they cannot remove giving from the picture. When we think of giving at Christmas, our minds might go back to the wise men who presented three different gifts to the Child, but the idea of sharing goes all the way back to the shepherds. There was no directive from the angels that they should go tell everyone. They simply received the good news, realized it needed to be shared, and they shared it.
And what do we do? George Mathew Adams once wrote, “Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.” And I would add the beating Christmas heart is a sharing heart.
Folks, this is the best news the world has ever heard! The angel had told the shepherds “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (2:10) “Good news of great joy” is more than just a cute little saying we hear at Christmas. It is literally “good news of great joy.” Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” is the most recorded Christmas song in history. We are most familiar with Bing Crosby’s rendition of it—and what a great job he did! Crosby tied Christmas with sharing when he said once, “Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it white.”
The true Christmas Heart is a sharing heart.
3. A Christmas Heart is a pondering heart, Luke 2:19
The experience of having her first child was probably nothing like Mary had imagined. There were no warm blankets, no mid-wife, and no mother close by to provide comfort. Yet the event was filled with wonder and mystery. With her nostrils filled with the smells of the straw, the animals and the blood, miles away from her family, her eyes glazed over with the pain and exhaustion of child-birth, Mary was able to “treasure up all these things and ponder them in her heart.”
Take a look at the words Luke used here. The NIV and others use the word “treasured” where the King James uses the word “kept”; either would be accurate. The original word meant “to keep something in your mind so that you don’t forget it,” or “to guard something in your mind.” Mary naturally had some things to guard in her mind, didn’t she? What an experience this was! And she “treasured” them; she “guarded” them, so that she would never forget them. Peter Marshall, once chaplain of the United States Senate, once prayed, “May we not “spend” Christmas or “observe” Christmas, but rather keep it.” A good prayer for us, today, don’t you think?
But what does it mean to “ponder”? Look at the word “pondered.” The original word meant “to throw things together.” So what is Mary doing? She is taking all the experiences of the last several months, and particularly of that night, and is bouncing them off each other to come to a conclusion.
Imagine a child with a piece of Play Dough. He rolls it around in his hand, smoothing it and shaping it. He’s intent and focused on what he is doing. When we ponder something, we are like that child—we are rolling it around in our heads, examining it from different angles, smoothing off the rough edges until we come to a conclusion about it.
At Christmas, it is so important that we rediscover the art of “pondering.” We should ponder the fact that God loved us so much that He purposely became one of us, not just so He could get an idea what it is like to be human. It wasn’t so He would have a better grasp on what it’s like to be tempted, or to get angry, or to feel loneliness. He came in order to die, to pay the tremendous penalty for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to! When we ponder this awesome truth at Christmas, we will go deeper than cute little angels and fluffy Santa Clauses. We will move past the crowds and the lines and the traffic.
We know Mike Wallace primarily from his work on the CBS program, "60 Minutes." He has told a story that early in his career he watched a fellow journalist interview prisoners who had escaped from a jail in Russia. Everyone knew that these prisoners had an amazing story to tell. The interview began and the four prisoners were unfolding a remarkable story of how they defied their communist captors and dug a tunnel through stone walls to freedom.
They told how they dug with makeshift instruments and risked their lives, and when their tunnel finally broke through on what they thought was the other side, they had actually broken through into Stalin’s office!! The prisoner recounting the story paused, Mike Wallace was hanging on every word, listening to the story, and then the journalist asked the prisoners, "and what are your hobbies now?"
The journalist wasn’t even listening to the story!! Mike Wallace said he was stunned! The most logical question to ask at that point was “And what happened next?” Here was this remarkable story that was being told and the journalist wasn’t even listening! He never heard it. For Mike Wallace that incident became what he calls a "Yes, well...," moment. That journalist was so eager to get on with the rest of the interview that he never heard the story.
A "Yes, well..." moment. Through the story of Christmas we are presented with the chance to listen to the greatest story ever told—that God came to us as a human baby. Have you truly listened to the story? How tragic it will be if we hear the story once again—as we have so many times before—and respond with a “Yes, well…” attitude. What a tragedy it would be if we stop pondering, stop wondering, stop being fascinating and enthralled by the story of Christmas.
Erma Bombeck once wrote, “There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.” (I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression) We know what she meant, and we agree. But I can think of something sadder than that. It is to awaken on the day after Christmas and realize that it came and went, and we didn’t really celebrate it at all.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would give Him a lamb.
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part.
But what can I give Him --
I give Him my heart.
(Christina G. Rosetti)
Rocky Henriques
www.timothyreport.com
