Do You See What I See?
by Roy StephenWhat I saw as a child
On Christmas day my family went to our local Tamil church at 5 AM. We’d return home to our traditional family Christmas breakfast of Appam (rice pancake) and chicken curry. During the whole of Advent, our home was filled with people. (I miss that now.) Christmas caroling was one of the great highlights for my brothers and me. It added to the festivity when groups of people came to our home to sing. Drums, guitars and other instruments accompanied well-rehearsed choirs. I loved seeing the Salvation Army come with their brass band. On Christmas day, in typical Indian fashion, my mom would be busy preparing food while my dad hosted our Hindu and Muslim friends who had been invited for Christmas dinner.
People, not gifts, were the focus of our celebration. Gifts were given to meet people’s needs. My parents would give us boys functional gifts - usually clothes. Our family made snacks and candy to give as gifts to neighbors and friends.
We saw a lot of Western influence on our Christmas traditions. Images of snow, holly, Santa, Christmas trees, as well as scenes of the Nativity shaped our view of Christmas celebration. We would cut down branches of Casuarina trees and decorate them with lights. These trees have evergreen, needlelike foliage and woody cones which resemble the Christmas trees we saw on Christmas cards.
When I was eleven years old I was asked by our pastor to read Isaiah 11 during the Christmas service. I read this passage over and over again in preparation. I remember my fascination of the imagery of verses 6-8:
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them."
How great it would be in a kingdom of peace where we all can enjoy creation as it was intended. It was a great vision for me – a young kid aspiring to be a zoologist. My dad explained to me about God’s plan from the beginning for our redemption and how we can see that unfold in verse 1:
"A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit."
What I see now
Christmas today in India, like here, has become a consumer holiday. Over the period of my growing up into adulthood I have seen Christmas caroling change from joyful Christmas singing at all homes to big fundraising project for several groups.
But there’s more to Christmas than what we see in our cultures. Recently as I meditated on Isaiah 11 during my devotional time, I was drawn to part of the chapter that reveals to me what God sees:
“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD . He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. "
God sees all - including those who long for justice, the poor and all who are needy. God sees me.
Because God doesn’t judge by what he sees, I do not need to strive to prove myself to find favor in God’s eyes. He is not going to be taken in by “what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears." Our good deeds. Our eloquent arguments. None of those matter to the One who will judge with righteousness. God knows the truth about us, our cultures and our world. He will judge the wicked and the whole earth according to His wisdom and understanding. And according to His grace. So judgment is not simply about the evidence of our personal and collective sin that is visible to Him. It’s about His faithfulness to His promises made in Jesus, our righteousness.
Beyond our cultural views of Christmas, we have a God who enables us to see what he sees: His character and ways, His view of us and others, His vision of future redemption, judgment and hope.
What do you see?
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register