I’m kind of a scrooge when it comes to the Christmas season. I won’t get into the specifics, but some of the central themes of Christmas in our culture give me more indigestion than cheer. Forgive me.
One of my primary indigestion inducing locations is the shopping mall. A couple months ago I was walking the aisles and taking it all in. The setting was quite beautiful, but the idea behind the setting wasn’t. I just can’t kick the thought of our frantic consumption resting on the shoulders and worn hands of the often oppressed woman and children who make the majority of the items being sold. It would be one thing if our consumption brought us peace and hope, but based on the focused faces, glazed eyes and speed walking, it didn’t seem to. I find myself in that very same posture quite often.
As we strolled along, I heard something. It was a faint sound amid the Christmas music, crying babies and noise from the nearby food court. It was as if the sound was designed to shake each of us out of our product induced daze and consider something more. Something outside of our hurried shopping lists. It was the bell that we have all heard hundreds of times. Holding the bell was an older fella with a homely smile and Santa hat. Next to him was the familiar Red Can. His smile was contagious to anyone who chose to acknowledge. So is his cause. It is just that there is such a struggle to snap out of our “daze” when we are surrounded by so many things that are counter to this cause. At the same time, when we do embrace and participate in this Cause, we begin to see this same setting not with critical eyes (as I so often struggle), but with eyes of invitation to something better. It is often in the homely smile that we see the One who invites us to turn from systemic hopelessness to renewed justice.
Which leads to my next post…