Christmas: Why Can’t I Find You?

A popular Christmas song muses the question, “Where Are You, Christmas? Why Can’t I Find You?” 

This song reminds me of Hank Ketcham's popular Dennis the Menace cartoon, which appeared in American newspapers for nearly 30 years. The scene is on Christmas afternoon, and Dennis has finally opened all his presents. He's up to his chin in a sea of toys and gifts. You can't see the floor because of all his stuff. The caption is a lament. Dennis says, "Is this all?"

There are lots of people who may be asking the same question as the song, “Where Are You Christmas? Why Can’t I Find You?” My wife Becky writes about one of our sons who once asked her the same question. 

“We have always gone by the philosophy of the silly song, ‘I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas.' The house is crazy decorated, starting before Thanksgiving! When one of our sons became an adult, he told me that Christmas didn't seem as magical as it had when he was growing up. I told him, ‘When you become an adult, the magic of Christmas is making it magical for someone else.’" 

Here's a true story from the Guideposts Christmas Treasury book that illustrates the “making-Christmas-magical-for-others” concept.   

Jack Smith had been asked by his church to do one of the Christmas Social Concerns projects. He was assigned to take two little boys from a poor home on a Christmas Eve shopping spree. Tommy (age nine) and his younger brother, Billy (age seven), were delighted when Jack Smith came from church to pick them up. They had been waiting for him all morning, with great excitement, because their dad was out of work. They knew that this was all the Christmas they would have this year. 

Jack gave them the allotted $4.00 each, and they started to look in shopping centers. Jack took them to the first toy store, but strangely, Tommy and Billy didn't seem too interested. Jack made suggestions, but always their answer was a solemn shake of the head, no. Then they tried a hobby shop with the same results. Then a candy store, and later, a sporting-goods store. They even tried a boys' clothing store, but no luck. Tommy and Billy would whisper to each other and look at a piece of brown wrapping paper they were carrying, but nothing yet had struck their fancy.

Finally, Jack asked, “Where would you boys like to look next?” Their faces brightened. “Could we go to a shoe store, sir?” asked nine-year-old Tommy. “We really want to get a pair of shoes for our daddy so that he can go to work.” 

In the shoe store, the clerk asked what the boys wanted. Out came the brown paper. “We want a pair of work shoes to fit this foot,” they said. Billy explained that it was the outline of their daddy's foot, drawn with a crayon. They had drawn it while their father was asleep in a chair. The clerk measured the outline of the foot and found some shoes that would fit. "Will these do?" he asked. 

The boys were delighted. Billy and Tommy, with big smiles, eagerly accepted the shoes. But then Tommy saw the price. “Oh, no! Billy! These shoes are $16.95, and we have only $8.00.” The clerk cleared his throat and said, “Well, that’s the regular price, but you’re in luck. It just so happens that those shoes are on sale today — today only, for $3.98.” Then, with the shoes happily in hand, Tommy and Billy bought gifts for their mother and two little sisters. Not once did they think of themselves.

The day after Christmas, Jack Smith saw their father out on the street looking for a job. He had the new shoes on his feet and gratitude in his eyes. He said to Jack, “I thank God for people like you who care!” Jack answered, “I thank God for your two boys. You taught me more about Christmas in one day than I had learned in a lifetime.” 

True stories like this take us beyond the shallowness and rhetoric of phrases like “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings,” to the real meaning of Christmas. It takes us beyond the shallowness of “Deck the Halls” or “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” to the gravitas of “Bright Hope for Tomorrow” or “Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come." While everyone loves the holiday spirit, let's not forget the real meaning of Christmas.

I suggest that is how anyone will eventually feel who celebrates the season rather than the reason for the season. For many, Christmas dries up faster than a Christmas tree on a stand indoors. The tree withers and dries up no matter what you do. Why? Because the tree was cut from its roots.  

So, what is the essence of Christmas? Christmas comes around each year to jog our memories; to remind us how much we need a Savior. Might I add, how much we need a Savior and how much we have a Savior? And when you get older, like our son, the magic of Christmas is making Christmas magical for others.

Don't just have a Holly, Jolly Christmas, but also an All Is Calm, All Is Bright Christmas.