Last night we watched Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Now
that is a good movie! And I'm not talking about the newer, flashier Jim Carrey version - I'm talking about some classic Boris Karloff! I really do love the message of the Grinch, revealed when he was standing atop Mount Crumpit, ready to dump the innocent Who's presents and thinking he had stolen Christmas. It was there the Grinch realized:
"Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small, was singing! Without any presents at all! He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same! And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice cold in the snow stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And then he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!"
As we watch the commercialism and consumerism and greed and sales and packed shopping malls swirl around us, now is the time to realize that Christmas
doesn't come from a store, and that it really
does mean a whole lot more! Christmas is the time to celebrate Christ, just like every time of year. And that's why the Grinch couldn't steal Christmas - because Christmas is not about the physical, what we can touch and feel and hear and smell. Christmas is about the unseen, the worship of God incarnate, humbled to the form of a baby! Christmas will always come without ribbons, tags, packages, boxes or bags, because no matter how long we puzzle it, our answer will always be the same - Christmas is about the birth of a baby, God in flesh, coming to save the world.
