Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash

When I wrote this blog, I think I got IT… I thought that seeing that we’re entering the Christmas period, maybe I should pull it out again and share it with those who have not yet read it…

Enjoy...

Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash

It's the 10th of December today. We're still fifteen days away from Christmas. Why on earth are we having a Christmas lunch today? This was the question running through my head. It was through this lunch that the Kruger family showed me what love is, but one little individual, Nathan, not only showed me, but taught me as well. I owe quite a substantial amount to this little guy. Thanks Nathan, this article's for you.

Allow me to explain why it is that we had ended up having a rather early Christmas lunch. The Kruger family had family visiting from Pretoria who sadly (I admit) are unable to spend Christmas day with them. In fact they're leaving tomorrow (the 11th) to head back home. Hence the early Christmas lunch. However, the story doesn't end there. This lunch had more attached to it. Quite a substantial amount more. More than I honestly expected.

I've been thinking a bit about this whole "Christmas" thing for quite sometime now. I always seem to get annoyed with the season. What is it about Christmas that seems to annoy me? Why is it that I get hacked off with the world? Perhaps it's the same reason I get annoyed around Easter. Everything is so commercialized, we seem to have veered so far off course that we don't even seem to know where the course is anymore. Bono, a role model of mine, made quite a profound statement that really got me thinking along the line of what Christmas really meant or means to me.

The statement you ask? Quite simply, whilst in a conversation with a friend of his (I think), he was talking about Christmas and he ending up saying that he was searching for the baby Jesus underneath the trash. Quite a statement. That definitely explained the place where I was at. I had lost Jesus and I needed to find him. The problem was I just didn't know where or how to begin.

How do I find Jesus underneath all the trash?

However, I didn't realise I was very close to solving this dilemma of mine.

Megs, a friend of mine keeps asking me why it is that I'm against the Christmas spirit and I keep replying with the same answer, "I'm not against it." Then she asks me about decorations and again I reply with "I'm not against the decorations." Not at all. Christmas decorations are great. All I'm really against is the concept behind them. The decorations are great. They add to the mood, the atmosphere. Are those the right words to be using? Probably.

What does annoy me, is the fact that decorations seem to now be about money. Money. It doesn't stop there though. Christmas in its entirety seems to now be about money. Profit. Money is all Christmas seems to be about today. It's because of this that I've realized that it's not only myself with this dilemma, we all seem to have lost Jesus. What happened to him? Does anyone know where he is?

I do.

I know exactly where he is and so does Bono.

He's (Jesus) stuck underneath all the trash and it's a problem.

A problem which I'm not really sure we can fix on our own. He's stuck underneath all this commercialism. Most of us have seem-ably missed the true concept behind Christmas. We've buried Jesus under the trash of a now commercialized Christmas. We need to all work together to change this issue. However, I sadly don't really see that happening in the near future.

Christmas for myself, is about Jesus.

Love

I only realized that today. Today I was given the opportunity to experience what I feel Christmas is really about. I experienced parents putting a smile upon a little boys (aged 7) face. Their son clearly means the earth and more to them. It was absolutely incredible. For some time now, Nathan's friends were telling him that Santa wasn't real. In an effort to prove them wrong and show him love I was taught a valuable lesson. He won't understand the concept of love yet, but I do. These two incredible parents taught me so much about love today.

How'd they do that?

Well, what they did was quite simple. Small gifts were organized for Nathan and his younger brother, who's just about walking now. Meg's and I wrapped the gifts, well actually Meg's did, I just watched. I can't wrap presents at all. Is there a course I could possibly consider attending to address this issue? This was obviously all done without Nathan knowing a thing. Once the gifts had been wrapped, Robert, a friend of ours, had the privilege of dressing up as Santa. I say privilege as it was really him that placed the smile upon Nathan's face.

Once everything was ready, gifts wrapped, Robert in his red suit and white beard, we were ready to make Nathan's day. All together, we went outside, grabbed a chair and pretended to relax in the sun. Dam it was hot! This Cape Town weather is amazing. We were now ready for the operation to take its course. Whilst sitting and having innocent conversation amongst each other, Santa suddenly popped into the yard, dropped a bag and was off in a flash, all without saying a word, thus eliminating any suspicion of Robert not being the real Santa. The look upon Nathan's face was priceless. Nathan was up in a flash (after a short period of shock) and out the gate on a quest to find Santa. Thanks to Mr Kruger, Megs dad, Santa was in a car and off in a flash. Santa works with cars now, not reindeers, its 2006!!! For a while, Nathan attempted to see if he could find Santa, but was obviously (and thankfully) unsuccessful.

When he got back, we showed him the bag that Santa had dropped before running off. Nathan, I must admit did seem a bit freaked out at this point, until his mother checked the bag and showed him there were gifts inside with his name on them. There was also a short note to Nathan from Santa saying that he just popped in to prove that in fact he was and is real. Nathan's smile was by far the most beautiful thing I've seen (along side my niece) in quite some time.

How absurd, I'm not naïve, but a 7 year old taught me the true meaning of Christmas. He helped me find Jesus again. His smile shared with me exactly what Christmas is all about, exactly what love is all about and exactly what Jesus is all about.

Love

Love is what Christmas is really all about.

Now, thanks to Nathan, I can say that I've found Jesus underneath the trash.


Have you?