Things I Tell My Wife by Matt Knutson

“We don’t need a white Christmas anyway,” I told Sera after looking at the forecast. It’s my wife’s first time being in Minnesota on Christmas Day, and she may be a bit disappointed it’s not the white Christmas she’d been promised as a consolation when we decided not to go to Topeka, Kansas, this year to visit her family. With the baby on the way, traveling that far away just didn’t seem wise.

Thankfully, Christmas comes whether the weather matches our hopes or not. The holiday is not dependent on the weather or anything else, really. Christmas arrived despite the Grinch’s grand attempt to ruin the celebrations in Whoville. It wasn’t stopped when Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree disappointed the gang. It won’t be stopped if Sera has to be dreaming of a white Christmas.

The lack of snow has caused me to stop and ponder what is it exactly that we do need for Christmas to come.

It’s not a tree, though Christmas trees have been on my mind as of late. Target donated several trees to my workplace this year for us to distribute to a few families who might otherwise not have something to put their presents under. My heart always grows a size or two when I see a big corporation giving back, and I’m guessing those family’s homes felt the spirit of Christmas a bit more this year.

To get in the Christmas spirit, Sera and I love to go on a drive through certain neighborhoods to see the holiday lights. A house just up the street went all out this year. My bride insisted I pull over so she could jump out of the car and snap a photo of the brilliant display. Our house remains dark; however, and my hopeful plea that it’d be too icy to put up lights this year was clearly overruled by nature. Perhaps next year I’ll put a few lights outside so our neighbors can imagine we aren’t from the Scrooge family. Christmas will still come without the lights on our house, after all.

Can Christmas come without the gifts? I’m sure it can, but it’d be much harder for some  people to accept that possibility. The gifts are the culmination of a lot of the preparation for this season, but Christmas comes whether your family got great deals on Black Friday or decided to completely forgo presents this year. Perhaps you’re exclaiming, “But even baby Jesus got gifts from the wise men!” True, would be my response. But what did the wise men receive? What about Mary and Joseph? I don’t recall anything under their Christmas tree in the manger.

Of course they did receive a gift that evening. We all did. The manger was their Christmas tree, and the baby Jesus was their gift. He was and is the gift given to the whole world from the first Christmas and onward to the celebrations occurring this very day. For Christians celebrating, Christmas should mark a new beginning — a time of Christ entering the world. The spirit of Christmas should not be over after the presents are unwrapped and the holiday feast is consumed. Instead it should mark the beginning for a season of emerging grace.

Christians believe the birth of Jesus is a sign of God’s grace, His unmerited favor and kindness coming down to the Earth. It’s miraculous, yes, and maybe also something for us to strive toward. I’m not suggesting we all start planning for a miraculous, virgin birth, but rather, we should be extending our own grace more often. It’s too easy to feel downtrodden and retaliate against a perceived oppression. By extending our grace, even to those we may deem unworthy, we’re creating a light in what may otherwise be a dark room.

It may be true that Christmas comes every year whether we have snow, trees, lights, or presents. Dec. 25 is always marked on the calendar whether Sera and I, or anyone else, is ready for it. This year, we will be choosing to add a little more grace into our traditions, for that is exactly what arrived with the Savior born many, many years ago.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.