Christmas is fundamentally a parenting story.
God loved his children. We all know that part of the tale. But how much? He was actually willing to get down into the trenches with humans, live alongside humans, and sacrifice for humans in order to help them make better choices… choices that would save them. Choices to be better to their families, their neighbors, strangers, and THEMSELVES, too.
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Every parent can relate.
You do it in the small ways: accompanying your child to a “scary” doctor’s appointment, wearing a ridiculous Halloween costume because they wanted you to put it on, or attend some even-more-ridiculous event because they wanted to go and needed a chaperone.
There are more profound examples happening in our communities every day; parents do extraordinary things to aid children grappling with serious disease, special needs or drug addiction to name just a few. Some parents work long hours to keep the lights on, send their kid to a better school, or subsidize a child who need expensive health insurance. Parenting isn’t getting any easier in a time when inflation is rampant, the culture is degrading, social media (and the education system) is working overtime to reprogram your little ones, and so few cultural elites seem to share our collective values.
When you do the things I mentioned above both big and small for your children, you’re actually fighting back. You’re very much living the Christmas story; not the funny one that AMC loops every December 25th but the genuine, original article.
The legacy of that grandest-of-all stories will play out under your Christmas tree this year. Challenge yourself to remember it as you wait patiently for your coffee to kick-in. Yes, you’ve spend too much of your hard-earned money on some electronic, over-priced, Chinese-made blinking, beeping nightmare and then stayed up too late wrapping it tomorrow night, all just to see that blindingly-bright smile creep over your child’s face on Christmas morning.
You’re also teaching your children (and reminding yourself) of what makes the parent-child relationship so special and important. Of what makes Christmas truly Christmas.
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