As Christmas fast approaches, it strikes me that this pandemic, with all its variants, is a lot like the Grinch. Remember him? He stole all the Christmas presents in Whoville, but on Christmas morning, instead of loud cries of despair, he heard singing…
And the Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling:
“How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
He puzzled and puzzled, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before:
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store–
Maybe Christmas–perhaps–means a little bit more.”
Indeed, it does. The “more” of Christmas lies in our inner life, not in the gifts we receive, the foods we eat, or the size of our gatherings. It comes from qualities such as peace, joy, love, kindness, contentment, gratitude, and faith. These are the gifts Jesus came to give us in abundance, and as they fill our hearts and homes nothing external can “steal” our Christmas. Not even a mean old pandemic.
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