3 Things the Grinch Taught Me about Christmas
- H. J. Smith
- Dec 24, 2020
- 4 min read
As Christmas is fast approaching, I quickly realized that I never introduced Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to my son. This seemed ridiculous as my son, like most children, loves Dr. Seuss. He is especially enamored with “Hop on Pop” after a long time fling with “Green Eggs and Ham.”
I decided to spend extra time with him during his nap time routine and read “The Grinch.” I perseveringly read through the book as I saw his interest peak in between his attempts to distract me and make me believe that he wasn’t listening. As the Grinch was contemplating how to steal Christmas from the Whos, something was awakening in my heart. The Grinch couldn’t steal Christmas, because the Whos knew the object of their celebration. The decorations, feasting, and presents were not what brought the Whos joy. These were merely material manifestations of the joy they already had.
I think many Christians have a rush of dissonance the weeks following Thanksgiving. We see the advertisements portraying Christmas as nothing more than an opportunity to buy that one thing you didn’t know you needed. We see tacky shows of people pretending to be happy juxtaposed with statistics of depression and suicide rates during the holidays. All this combined can become our picture of Christmas. Like the Grinch, we stand on a hill judging those who are truly celebrating. We dismiss their joy as noise and their feasting as gluttony.
In this way, I allowed my own heart to become like the Grinch’s. In order to offset my discord, I would ask myself, “If I didn’t have all the presents, food and decorations, would I still be thankful this Christmas?” My response would resemble, “Yes! Because I have so much more than other people. I have my family whom I love; I have a home; and I have relatively good health.” But this year was the first time in a while I said, “Yes! I would be happy because I know Jesus.”
Since I was celebrating the gifts and not the giver, putting any effort into material celebration felt dishonoring. I felt guilty for any money I spent because my family and I already had enough. Eating good food felt like coerced gluttony and left me feeling the legalistic need to start a diet after the New Year.
Shifting my mindset from celebrating God’s gifts to celebrating Jesus helped me to find joy participating in the celebration, while simultaneously giving me peace that the decorations, gifts, and food were not necessary to truly celebrate. Here are three things I learned from the Whos about celebration:
1) A need to feast—Do you ever feel guilt surrounding all the food at Christmas time? I know I have. But when I read scripture, I am always amazed at how often the metaphor for feasting is used to describe God’s kingdom[1]. And it isn’t merely a metaphor. Many celebrations in the Old Testament required a feast. The Lord’s Supper is a feast of the believers. I think one reason I feel guilty about all the food is that I have disconnected my feasting from Jesus. Before we celebrate with food, however, we need to feast on God’s word.[2] If we are not eating the word of God, then we will be like the Grinch, who despised the feasting. Or the food itself will become the object of our worship.
2) A need for tradition—I think American Christians have become quick to associate tradition with the Pharisees, who were strict to observe traditions but did not recognize the Son of God. And there is good reason to be weary of rituals. However, the Bible does have a lot of positive things to say about tradition. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.” (1 Cor. 11:2) Traditions help establish the passing on of what is good and meaningful from one generation to the next.[3] But Paul continues, “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor. 11:3). Traditions lose their meaning when they are separated from the triune God. Do not despise traditions. Use them to teach your children about our good God.
3) A need for worship—while tradition is an important ritual in our lives, the heart of those traditions is worship. 1 Chronicles 16:23-25 says, “Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods.” I tend to wrongly think of worship as a state of heart. This year, obedience has helped shape my understanding of worship. God doesn’t just give us worship as a self-help meditation. He commands it of us.[4] And he deserves it.
I think the Grinch, like many of us, was tired of all the THINGS. He hated the noise surrounding the THINGS. He found it meaningless, just like many nihilistic souls today. Then, I look at the Whos. If they were like me in previous years, they may have said, “It’s ok, those things are not what really matter.” And they could have hugged their families and moved onward. But they didn’t do that. Nor did they cry over the things that were stolen. Rather, they joined hands and they sang. In other words, they worshipped. This Christmas, my prayer is Christians would celebrate in true worship and devotion to Jesus. May that devotion confound the grinches, weary of materialist meaninglessness, and invite them to join in the celebration.
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