CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

GOD STAYS AND PLAYS [Sa, 12-25-21]

 

This, of course, is my favorite Christmas story, and so I repeat it every year.

As Christmas approached when our granddaughter, Brigid, was about four years old, she said to her mother, “You know, Santa and Grandpa are a lot alike. Santa has a bald head, and Grandpa has a bald head. Santa has a white beard, and Grandpa has a white beard. Santa brings toys, and Grandpa brings toys… but Grandpa is better, because he stays and plays.”

That, I think, is the message of Christmas. God is not just some Santa, hurrying through the universe, stopping on the roof of the earth long enough to throw a few toys down. In Jesus, the Christ, God stays and plays.

John Robert McFarland