People often say that Christmas is for children. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is a holiday best enjoyed by those whose capacity for wonder and enchantment is untarnished, who still believe in what cannot be seen, who love the anticipation of wrapped gifts and visiting family.
The run-up to Christmas can leave me feeling a little tarnished, or at least tired. So what good news it is to hear that I have received power to become a child again!
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Not everyone accepts the Light of the World; some have grown accustomed to the familiarity of shadows. Not everyone wants light shined in dark places. And by our own strength, we cannot always turn ourselves toward the Light. John suggests that it is Jesus who gives us power to become children of God. We become God’s children not by virtue of lineage or procreation or our own will, but by the power of God which comes from outside us and takes root inside us.
How do we claim – or reclaim – our identity as children of God? How might that reawaken our sense of wonder and delight? It might help to remember that children do not usually feel responsible for everything the way adults tend to do. Can we remind each other that we’re not actually in charge of making things right for everyone?
And children don’t generally let life’s disappointments diminish their ability to expect good things. Remember when there was one gift you were so hoping would be there under the tree? What would that be for you now?
Maybe I need to sit under my barely decorated Christmas tree for a little while and remember the gift I am, the gifts I have been given, the Gift of Love whose birth we celebrate. That just might help me rediscover the joy of being claimed as beloved by that Love, and let my “inner child of God” come out and play a bit.
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