By Asangba Tzudir
While every Christmas brings different experiences, when we travel back to the more innocent Christmas - the sight of a color paper made star hanging outside or hovering from a bamboo pole, the soft glow of Christmas lights, the fresh smell of pine tree, the joy and laughter, and of course Jim Reeves and Boney M kept the chorus of Christmas spirit alive, and which was enough to stir deep joy within us. Today, the more sophisticated sights and sounds of Christmas no longer seem to stir the joy within. A question then arises: have we grown up, or have our hearts grown distant from the very meaning of Christmas?
In the modern turn adulthood has taken a more realistic turn even as responsibilities seems unending killing the joy and wonder, anticipation, and awe. As such, one might argue that we have simply ‘grown.’ However, growing older should not necessarily mean growing emptier, and if Christmas symbols no longer touch us, perhaps the issue is not age but attention.
Our attention seems to have diverted from the essence to mere decorative pieces. The Christmas star and the manger were never meant to be mere decorations. These symbols become hollow because they have been reduced to aesthetics rather than one that lets encounter love, hope and peace.
Today, consumerism has played its part. Within the growing sophistication, Christmas today has become louder, brighter, and even costlier, yet very strangely has become emptier. We decorate, exchange gifts, and celebrate Christmas but we seem to have sidelined the soul of Christmas. The so called Christmas things fail to stir us because they are drowned in excess, where noise has replaced meaningful silence, and spectacle has replaced sacredness.
However, there lies a deeper question and which is spiritual: Have we prepared room for the Baby Jesus? The Biblical Christmas story informs us of two things – preparation of the heart to make room for thee, or the lack of it. There was no room for Mary and Joseph in the little town of Bethlehem. This Christmas too, two thousand years later, the situation feels hauntingly familiar. Our hearts are drowning in anxieties, ambitions and ‘big’ assets, grudges, and distractions. In such a condition, the joy of Christmas will surely find it difficult to survive.
Little Children seem to find wonder in stars and trees, fully giving themselves to the moment, and because their hearts are still uncluttered. On the other hand, Adults, because of their half presence often give only fragments of themselves marked by half-attention, half-belief, half-joy. Christmas will not automatically overwhelm us with happiness but invites us into the heart and soul of it, and so Christmas cannot be casually approached lest it responds quietly.
The reawakening of the spirit and the joy of Christmas does not require grand gestures, but through intentional preparation. It begins by making room for Jesus wherein we allow old symbols to speak again, not as decorations, but as reminders of divine humility and love by sharing and giving what we have in the expression of Gods unconditional love. Perhaps the stars still shine, the Christmas trees still stand, and the old carols still sing. What has really changed is not Christmas but us. And yet, Christmas continues to ask the same gentle question this Christmas too: Will you make room?
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com).
