Grinch called - wants Christmas back

Perspective changes everything, don't you think? This morning I read through a couple of my favorite blogs. They talked all about the christmas stuff - gifts and family and parties and food and shopping. Busy, busy, busy. Kind of hard to tell whether they were complaining, bragging, or something else altogether.

Sitting in our "luxury" motel room, trying to understand displacement (physical, emotional, etc.), it occurred to me that I no longer know what christmas should be about or more to the point, how to do it. I do get the whole God-in-the-flesh-saving-the-world thing, but I'm talking about the rest of it, or the living out of it, or receiving of it. The flurry of activities boggle my mind...literally overwhelm me. To be clear, I'm not pronouncing judgment on anything. Just trying to understand it.

Does it seem like christmas and busyness are synonymous? Are we trying to hide from something or hide something in us from us...or others? Maybe the difficult economic times or family dysfunctions or even tragedies that weigh on our hearts and minds. Or is the busyness simply a celebration of all that is good?

On a different note, I do like the goofy Christmas movies about estranged family members who are reunited at the end of the story with the ease of spreading soft butter on hot toast. I watched a really corny one last night about a girl/woman who turns out to be Santa’s daughter. Sort of an interesting situation with several built-in complications, like how does she get close to anyone when she’s not really supposed to let the whole my-dad-is-kris-kringle cat out of the bag. Unfortunately, the storyline suffered from too little imagination and too much formula. Even so, the required and predictable reconciliation scene toward the end of the movie touched me. I love that stuff.

So maybe that’s what christmas is all about. Reconciliation. Something returned to its rightful place. The place it belongs…its home.

In that spirit, maybe the Grinch never stole christmas. Maybe he just wanted it to be his for a change. Maybe it used to be his. Maybe, just maybe, the keys to the christmas house belong to him. Maybe the Grinch alone understands the truth of it all. Maybe he just wanted to be reconciled. Find the place where he belonged…his home.

Starting to feel a bit sorry for him? All I know is: the Grinch called and he wants christmas back. We can hold the keys to the season in our over-booked, super-religious, exhausted, my-way-or-the-highway hands, OR we can have a new set made...just for him. I for one want the Grinch back. I believe there's more to him than we will ever know.

Grinch! Grinch! Grinch!