Christmas: Not What You’d Expect
By Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
Christmas & the Holy Family
Most of the Christmas movies we all watch every year revolve around some pretty unexpected circumstances. Take “Home Alone”, for example, which I can’t believe is 25 years old already.
If you had never seen that movie before, upon hearing the title you might expect it to be a quaint short film about a boy accidentally left home while both parents go Christmas shopping secretly without communicating about who was watching their son. Twenty minutes later they both return to find that their son made them a cute Christmas craft while sitting in his room and didn’t even notice they were gone.
But if that were the case, we wouldn’t be watching it 25 years later. No; in this story Kevin is accidentally left home alone while his family goes on vacation to Paris through an almost unbelievable set of circumstances. To top it off, he successfully defends his home against burglars, gets them arrested, cleans up the gigantic mess he made with all the traps in his house which is the real miracle of the movie, and his parents are none the wiser. It’s epic. It’s legendary. And it’s not what you’d expect.
“The Santa Clause” is no classic origin story of the jolly gift-giver. The title even hints at the unexpectedness with the “e” at the end of “Clause” in the title, referencing the clause stating that Tim Allen’s character has to take over and become the new Santa Claus when Santa tragically slips off a roof and dies. He spends the rest of the movie fumbling through accepting his new calling. You wouldn’t have 2 sequels if the first one wasn’t unexpected (though maybe we would have been better off without those sequels…)
The most unexpected Christmas story, however, is the story of the original Christmas. The Birth of Christ. The Nativity of Our Lord. There’s nothing about this story that’s expected – most of all that God became one of us! But even if we take that for granted (which we never should), you’d at least expect him to come fully grown, not as a vulnerable child. Or if he came as a baby, you’d at least expect him to be born in a palace. Or even if he was born “O Little Town of Bethlehem” they’d at least be able to find a room at the inn for Mary and Joseph. Or even if he was born in a cave and laid in a manger you wouldn’t expect shepherds to show up claiming to have heard the announcement of his birth from angels who appeared to them; And magi showing up with gold, frankincense, and myrrh? A team of writers couldn’t come up with a story this good.
If there’s one thing that we can learn from the Christmas story (not “A Christmas Story” with the Red Ryder BB Gun and the leg lamp) but THE Christmas Story, it’s that when it comes to God, we should learn to expect the unexpected. This Christmas, pray that Jesus would come into your life in new ways and do great things in you and through you. Maybe you’ll be the one who says to your family, “Hey I know Christmas was last week, but why don’t we go to Mass again this week?” Maybe you’ll be the one who suggests saying a quick prayer before dinner on a Tuesday night (or even eating together in the first place on a Tuesday night). Maybe you’ll be the one who starts showing forgiveness and mercy in your family. Not what they’d expect? Perhaps. But that’s how God works, isn’t it?
