Flipping over the pages of Christmas

By Thanreingam Muivah *

After scorching summer had passed nippy winter has arrived yet again. The air is getting chillier each passing day. And each moment drives us nearer and nearer to the great event everyone is expecting from Christmas celebration. When festive mood engulfs the mind, I doubt if there really exists any season preferable than the one in our midst. I tried, albeit unsuccessfully to single out any moment with loss of appetite during this season.

In fact it is the best season during which family members get together to share what the passing days of the year had brought about. No matter how tough had the year turned out to be, this final calendar month also gives us the opportunity to still look back those passing days for better assessment of the year that is shortly to come by.

It is also quite a relief to recall the memories of celebrating Christmas during childhood days. For a moment allow me to drag back that brief playful act. Armoured in a pitch-blue jeans suit each pocket filled with roll caps holding pistol, I slammed the doors and walked out to the tune of naughty shoes, and was all set to conquer the world.

Songs like "Long time ago in Bethlehem," "Jingle bell," etc played in the background really added fuel to such act, full of whimsy. However, the true meaning of those songs merely passed into deaf ears of a little boy, who would hurry for a battle of fun. And every moment had to be enjoyed to the fullest as another twelve months seemed too long to hang on. That was how as a naughty boy I used to celebrate Christmas.

Now, with Christmas celebration again just few days away, many of us are expecting so much despite the failure to reason the true meaning of the celebration. There are of course varying ways with which we can respond to the birth of a child in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.

However, by reading the story of Christmas from the Bible we can simply trim out just three responses made by the Innkeeper, King Herod and Simeon the priest to evaluate what Christmas means.

The Innkeeper, his wife and kids were dwelling in a big house that was built by their grandfather back when his trading business was at a peak. As people from all over the province flooded into the town of Bethlehem, that big house turned into an inn for the travellers.

People kept coming to the inn and it was in such a crowded night when the inn had already been filled that Joseph and Marry came in search of a room where their child could be given birth. While Joseph was pleading for a room, an awfully paled Marry grabbed her tummy in pain. The innkeeper knew he couldn't let her have the baby outside in the wind and sleet. So he shooed several animals into the pen outside and made room in one dry corner.

Joseph had 'little Marry' settled on soft, clean hay, wrapped up in a blanket, wiping the perspiration off her as she fought the waves of pain. And all of a sudden there came a little cry. Then soon the cattle were lowing softly, the lantern was blowing almost out as the baby Jesus was asleep in his mother's arms.

This brief scene tells us that the innkeeper did not react in hostility towards Joseph and Marry which shows that he was not opposed to the child's birth. But the pitfall was that his inn was booked and over crowded and that the child had to be given birth in the barn. As we reflect our lives, this is the answer we are giving today. Like the innkeeper, our hearts are being preoccupied by other crowding interests that we find it hard to accommodate a room for Christ in us.

King Herod on the other hand was terribly disturbed when he heard the news of the baby born in the soil of Judea through the Magi who had come following the star to worship the new born baby. Being panic over the thought that someone may take his place as king, Herod had to plan to destroy the baby.

To fulfil his plan of terror he sagely pleaded the Wise Men to let him know the place where the child was born after they had found so that he too could go and worship him. But as his plan to find the location failed, King Herod declared a decree to kill all the boys aged two or younger in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Furious Herod's plan of killing the baby totally failed as the infant had been fled to Egypt by his parents.

This is the slogan shouted in many parts of the world for it's assumed that a life-changing Christ would strike the roots of one's independence. And this is prompting us to say "NO" to Christ's interference.

Simeon's way of responding to the birth of Christ is something we need to cherish most as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. One night when Simeon was young something incredible happened to him. It was like suddenly having lights switched on in one's life, after an eternity of groping around in the darkness for Simeon that night.

The promise was that Simeon would not die before seeing the Messiah, the Christ himself in flesh. But when would that moment come ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years later? he was clueless. He couldn't imagine what it would be like waiting for twenty five years. Yet he was filled with full of excitement with a promise newly given to him.

After that, each morning he woke up and sprang out of bed with full of excitement thinking if that was the day. He had become old, all his friends had gone but Simeon still had to continue his waiting for the promise to come true. Then finally came a day when he had an explicable longing to visit the temple. He wondered if that day really was the day and he could not imagine going on much longer for he had turned so old then.

After crossing the city and up the hill he arrived at the temple. He saw hustle and bustle, shouting, singing in excitement. Yet he felt compelled to go up a different staircase to his usual one. And in the fresh morning air and dappled sunshine the queues were already long for sacrifices. But as he glanced at a couple standing at the front of the line with a young baby, something happened to him.

He could not stop staring at them. Then he moved over to them as fast as his legs could carry him more like a hobble than a run, and asked if he could hold the child. The mother smiled at him proudly and gave him her child. Simeon lifted the baby high into the air, threw back his head and laughed, and in his laughter a prayer came out.

"Now you can let me, your servant go home in peace, just like you promised me so long ago. For my very own eyes have seen your marvellous scheme. Salvation itself."

This response of an old Simeon is what I think all of us should have as we celebrate His birth.

Christmas is the celebration of love, generosity, benevolence, kindness and brotherhood. Accordingly, the true meaning of Christmas is a hallmark of spiritual sensitivity of an atmosphere where there is no strife, no anger, no hatred nor criticism. However, it's a nightmare today that we have made the true meaning of Christmas obscure due to materialisation and commercialisation.

Now beneath gust of stars twinkling ceaselessly, Christmas carols are on in full swing with the melodious message of its kind, knocking the hearts of all human race. Here and there people tremble like those shepherds who wondered at the news of a saviour wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

If the birth of Christ really is a good news of great joy, I am desperate to know how many of us do respond to it like Simeon did even as I take the privilege of wishing all the readers a "Merry Christmas."

*** This article was first published in The Sangai Express on 21 Dec 2008