A Child's Christmas

Many years ago I belonged to a church which emphasized the need to "ask Jesus into your heart" to such a degree that some of the moms in the church became overly worried about their very young children's salvation. "What if he never asks Jesus into his heart?" one mom asked me regarding her four year old son.

"What makes you think Jesus isn't already in his heart?" I replied.

I have noticed a sad trend among some Christian parents to expect their young children to experience the mystery of faith in adult terms. They remove what they view as the frivolous (fun) parts of holy feast days in order to help their children focus on what's "really important". The fear is that the child might associate Christmas with Santa Claus rather than Christ's birth, or Easter with the Easter Bunny rather than with the Risen Lord, or that they will prefer presents and candy over a spirit of charity and service.

The families who take this stripped-down, adult (and, they would argue, "biblical") approach to holidays almost always grew up in a home where faith and church life were either non-existent or not important. For them Christmas was about getting presents and Santa and nothing else.

Here is what I wish they knew: Christ infuses everything in a Christ centered-home.

I grew up in a family that went to church together each Sunday. Each year there was a Sunday School Christmas pageant, a Christmas craft making day, group caroling, and a church-wide Christmas supper and party (with a visit from Santa). The sanctuary of the church was decorated with greenery, an Advent wreath, candles, poinsettias, a creche, and a Christmas tree--just like at home. As a child, Christ was at the center of everything in my life. My parents made certain of it. Presents and Santa and glittering lights were all a part of what I knew to be Him. These things did not detract or take away from my developing faith; they added to it.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“There is a stage in a child’s life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition which began ‘Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.’ This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental. And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first. If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering, life."

My apologies to readers who view Tea & Cake via Google Reader and other Readers for odd bits of posts that magically published themselves last night. Strange stuff.