Christmas time is a wonderful time to think about “things or people”! Soon we will enter the annual Christmas parade of rushing to the shopping malls. Once there we will scrutinize sales to buy that special something for someone we cherish or to fulfill our lottery pick from the office pollyanna. Shopping for things consumes us at Christmas time. We study newspaper inserts for the best bargains and lowest prices. We want things, but at the lowest price. Yes, indeed the Christmas rush has begun. It’s a good time to ask: Is Christmas about things or people?
Christmas is more than a concern about things. It’s about relationships. God desiring us to be His friends. When His first attempt in the Garden of Eden failed, God didn’t give up. Christmastime is our celebration of God’s second and most profound attempt. God so wanted persons, and not things that He sent His Son born like us in all things, but sin. Yes, this faithful and forgiving God sent His only Son to show He will love persons in the same way He does His Son.
In fact St. Thomas Aquinas wrote God sending His son shows His love is greater for us than His love for the angels. And God is willing to do whatever he can to convince us, His people! It is true. When it comes to things or people, God chooses us every time.
Can we do the same? Can we choose people over things? Christmas with all its celebration, carols and choirs only wants to know about our choices. Will we choose persons over careers, ambitions, prestige, rank or other things ? Will we appreciate people as saved and special to God as we are? Or do we see them as simply stepping stones for our own self-promotion?
Christ faced the same questions uttered by those who confronted him? His death was chosen to protect things like power and the status quo. They chose not the person of God’s Son , but things. And this is the same choice we still face this Christmas.
During the Christmas season, we are asked to choose God’s choice. God always chooses us – His people. This Christmas, as we face the choice of “things or people,” chose the person God sent, His Son, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior! It’s the only true gift God wants this Christmas!