Christmas From God's Side?

My dad used to say, “Never criticize the Indian, ‘til you walk a mile in their moccasins.”  It’s an old saying, but the invitation behind it contains great wisdom, especially in a world that seems to reinforce self-centered perspectives on how we should be living life.  The meaning behind the old proverb is simple; until you can live and experience life as if you are inside of another individual’s head and heart, you will never know how they feel or think, nor why they do what they do.

For example, my old surfing buddy is ten years my junior.  One day, after a heavy day of surfing, I remember telling him, “just wait until you’re 40!”  Then, ten years later, on another surfing occasion, I said, “just wait until you’re 50!”  It’s funny how our perspectives can get turned back on us.  Now, as I near 60 years of age, and complain about the years of wear and tear on my body to those with a few more years under their belt, they often reply with the same phrase, “just wait!”  

What these more mature citizens mean is that when I reach their status in life I will begin to see things from their perspective and understand from a first person experience what it is like to be them and walk in their shoes.  In other words, my complaints are relative and only a glimpse of some others experience in a more profound way.

We are by nature, egocentric.  This is not a criticism, but more a testimony that we see the world through our eyes, our ears and our experiences.  It is very hard to step into someone else’s “shoes,” and gain an empathetic sense of the world and someone else’s life experience.  When these rare opportunities do come our way, we become open to epiphanic-type manifestations. It is in these moments that we may experience extraordinary empathy.

Take Christmas for example.  We all experience Christmas in a general way.  Yet, each of us also experiences Christmas in a subjective way through personal perspective.  In the real world this means living the season with both positive and less positive feelings based on your personal interaction with the influences that bear on your life. 

Christmas is lived and experienced for our side, with the perspective of humanity in all shapes, conditions, level of faith or sense (expectation) of the season.  No matter what our individual interaction and emotional response – even for people of faith in God through Jesus Christ – it’s always from our perspective.

I invite you to join me in a guided experiment. Let’s step outside of ourselves for just a moment. Now, I want you to imagine Christmas not from your experience, your history, your hurts and not even your expectations, but imagine Christmas from God’s side. What do you think or feel Christmas is like from God’s perspective?  If you did know, how might your experience of Christmas change or even deepen? 

I know it seems an impossible task given our nature to see life from the subjective side of things. However, we do have some solid evidence as to how God views Christmas.

During Advent, I am offering a sermon series exploring this idea of Christmas from God’s side.  Many of us have longed for Christmas to be not so much about us, but about what God did and is doing through Jesus’ entry into our world and our humanity. It’s a fair exploration, because if God, through His incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, was willing to “walk a mile in our moccasins,” in order to reach us in our humanness and bring wholeness, why shouldn’t we be willing to see “Christmas from God’s side.”