(by Dave, 10 min)
Scripture
Isaiah 40:1-5
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
What the heck happened
Honeymoons are wonderful things and mine was no exception. Several beautiful days with the love of my life. On the first morning my bride ordered coffee. I hated the stuff having only tasted the instant swill my mother drank every day. My new wife told me that instant coffee should not be used to judge the beverage. “You should try it again,” she urged, and I did.
That stuff was good, but I had no idea how good until 10-15 minutes later when I started to feel really good. The caffeine focused my attention and made me energetic and happy, as if I needed any help feeling happy
on my honeymoon. When we got home, I forgot about coffee and went back to work in the clinic where I saw patients.
Then one day the receptionist and I decided to get a department coffee pot. I started brewing the stuff when I got there in the morning, and it was just like before. Focused, energetic and happy. We drank it daily, and to my great disappointment everything started to fade. First off the list was the elevation in mood. Feeling more focused and energetic faded next until each cup in the morning just made me feel a bit more awake. And that was that. What the heck happened?
Habituation happened. Caffeine blocks a receptor in our brains that regulates how much neurons communicate. Removing that regulation is responsible for the elevated mood, focused attention, and arousal I encountered the first time I drank it. Alas, our brains don’t like to be futzed with. So over time adjustments are made until caffeine becomes expected and your delightful cup of java just wakes you up a bit.
I wonder if it’s this way with Christmas. When we were little kids, Christmas was like the first ever cup of coffee. You could barely sleep for the excitement. This year my granddaughter will be three, and I am really looking forward to seeing her because she is old enough to understand that waking up Christmas morning is great. This Christmas might be her first cup of Christmas coffee so to speak.
I suspect the excitement has habituated for those of us who have experienced many Christmas days. Gifts, relatives and gatherings are nice, but they don’t elevate your mood like they did when you were a kid. Maybe now the season just wakes us up a little bit before January rolls around and we head back to our normal lives. Wouldn’t it be good to re-experience the excitement my granddaughter is going to feel this year?
The way to restore coffee’s full effects is to stop drinking it for two or three months. Then when you drink it again, it’s just like the first time. I guess if Christmas excitement is lacking, one way to get it back is to stop doing all the stuff around Christmas time for a few years. Stop the cards, hosting people, going to parties, decorating your house, buying presents and such. Then when you do it again all the excitement for Christmas might come back. Right?
Not all habituation is the same
As you can see, the analogy between habituating to coffee and Christmas has its shortcomings. That’s because caffeine is a drug and Christmas most definitely is not. Isaiah tells us what Christmas is and he begins chapter 40 with the foundation for the Messiah; a deep expression of God’s love for Israel. The Israeli people were told that God tenderly cares for them and that He no longer holds their sin against them. They have paid the price for their misdeeds through their hardship and exile. Because they paid the price, God wants to speak tenderly to them.
For all of us who stand on the shoulders of the Israeli people, God will likewise speak tenderly. Although we did not pay the price our religious ancestors did, God paid it for us, and on Christmas we celebrate the day God Almighty presented his gift to mankind. If we want to be excited like children during the Christmas season, then Isaiah reminds us God’s gift to mankind began with love. If we can remember that while doing our traditions, then those traditions become infused with God’s love. A revitalization that will not fade.
But Isaiah goes on because recognizing God’s loving gift of salvation and accepting His gift are only the beginning to restoring our excitement for the day. God doesn’t give gifts to only make us happy. He gives gifts that transform and through the transformation comes unending joy.
A man transformed
A very wealthy man signed his last will and testament in 1895 designating the fate of $265 million in today’s dollars. He made this fortune continuing his father’s armament business. His father, for example, sold Russia underwater mines during the Crimean war of 1853-1856. The man continued his father’s work and held patents for nitroglycerin detonators, blasting caps, dynamite and a smokeless gun powder. By 1895, he owned almost 100 factories devoted to making explosives and arms for war. All of this made him fabulously wealthy.
In 1888 the man’s brother died of a heart attack and the news media misidentified the departed. Rather than his brother, a Paris newspaper believed the man had died. They wrote an unflattering obituary claiming he was a merchant of death who acquired his wealth by inventing new ways for people to destroy each other. Because of this and other factors in his life, the man’s biographer stated that he became obsessed with his posthumous reputation.
The man who wrote his will in 1895 was Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel prize. Originally, there were to be five recipients and one of those was for: “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.” The Nobel Peace Prize.
Alfred Nobel was so concerned what others would think about him after he died that he decided to do something good so he would be well remembered. He decided to transform his reputation (and perhaps his spirit) through an act , and it worked. Indeed, until I stumbled upon this story, I had no idea that the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize was an arms dealer. Obviously since he penned his own will, Mr. Nobel was comforted by the thought that his wealth, built on the sale of things that could destroy, would now be used for things that advance and bring peace. In other words, setting up the Nobel prize transformed him and along with it came some peace and happiness.
Being transformed
If Mr. Nobel was transformed by the opinions of others, how much more could we be transformed by responding to God’s Christmas gift to us? Isaiah says: ”….prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The NIV study Bible says these words reflect the near Eastern custom of having representatives go forth to prepare the way for the monarch. For us Isaiah’s words might be saying: be like Mr. Nobel. Start doing things to make straight the pathway for Jesus in your hearts. Maybe be kinder, more understanding or forgiving to people. Maybe not rush to condemn. A good prescription, no?
However, Isaiah goes on in such a way to suggest these kinds of changes are not a prerequisite for the gift of Christmas, but instead the result of it. Listen to the way the prophet describes what will happen when the King enters the world or for that matter your heart. “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together.” The Messiah’s entry into the world is what will transform us into God’s desire.
It seems God’s Christmas gift has a component beyond salvation. I made my granddaughter a box for Christmas this year that might illustrate this notion. Inside the box is a tray that has little toys in it I think she will like. The tray has two small handles for her so she can lift it out. When she does, there are more toys hiding underneath. Perhaps when we remember that Christmas is about God’s gift of love to us, it’s like lifting the tray to find that beneath salvation lies another extraordinary present. An openness to be transformed by God’s indwelling Spirit.
Alfred Nobel was transformed by the opinions of others. That’s a powerful motivator, but it pales in comparison to the gift of salvation and the transformation that follows. I vividly remember playing in the praise band at my church one year on Christmas Eve. I was to finger pick the guitar background to Silent Night while the congregation sang. As the single instrument and the beautiful words washed over me, I rocked back and forth with the music consumed by gratitude for God’s gift. It was very moving and changed my whole disposition that season.
I believe God giving us His infant son in a manger gives hope for the future and changes us now. When we truly embrace and recognize just how significant the birth of Christ is, it raises our valleys of despair with hope. It levels the mountains of our hubris with humility and paves smooth a road otherwise potholed with sin. Every time we give ourselves up to the Spirit on Christmas morning, my Christmas Eve experience will happen all over again. It’s happening to me now as I write this. Unlike coffee, there is no habituation to Christmas if Jesus is at the center of it.
So, my friends, I pray that Jesus will be foremost in your mind this Christmas and that you will feel God’s hands molding you as you receive and remember the gift of salvation. Coffee can’t do this……but I think I’ll go get some anyhow. After all, that stuff is pretty good. Maybe I was wrong and God sometimes gives us gifts just to make us happy.
Merry Christmas to you and a very happy new year. Thanks for your precious time reading my posts over the course of this year. Writing to you gives me a very needed sense of purpose, and for that I am most grateful to you all. Thank you so much.
Dave
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