This quote from Dr. Seuss says, “The true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.” Is this an overlay to the nativity event? I have seen many dumbed-down scriptural quotes on social media pushing an idea or agenda of what Jesus taught, and each time I think, “Wow, they are using the figure of Christ to manipulate a thought or idea they want others to think is true.” Rather than getting to the point of Christ, the Son of God, coming to Earth, living and dying a sacrificial death to save us from our sins and reopen the doorway to the Father, I see a bunch of nonsensical social commentaries. Let’s take this apart a bit.
The true…
The truth, “my truth,” all references these days to true and truth seem to come from someone’s version of what they ‘feel’ is true. The “true” in this quote registers at 10% accurate. This begins the embedding of a miasm. A miasm is a lie that is made to look like a fact when, in actuality, it is an idea someone would like to embed into a cultural response. People rally around this idea and are passionate about it. I was saddened to see my daughter greeted by a person in a Grinch costume this morning at drop-off at a Christian school. Is the true spirit of Christmas being nice to each other and singing songs? That tests at 8% true.
True spirit of Christmas…
Does the author of the book know about the true spirit? Unfortunately, Dr. Seuss (pen name) was a man who was deeply prejudiced against people with deeper hues of melanin in their skin. Some of his children’s books reflect this prejudice. Would I want to take advice from someone who degraded others? Would he have a finger on the pulse of God’s idea of the true spirit? What is the true spirit of Christmas? Is it the incredible blessing and outright miracle of God sending His Son to Earth to live among us? This comes closer at 92% true, and then if we add that the purpose of this miraculous birth was to reestablish a direct link to Father God, this becomes 100% true.
True spirit of Christmas lies in your heart…
Christ came to teach us about love, the love of the Father for us, and in His actions, He showed by example how to love one another. Still, in the way it is presented to us with these words, it only tests at 8% true. When the Christ child had lived His life and was nearing the end of His time with us, He said He would send us a spirit, a comforter, who would be the Spirit of Truth to live in our hearts. In this way, we could be close to God always. Is the spirit of Christmas the Spirit of Truth? This tests as 100% true. I am also troubled by the word “lies” in this quote: “The spirit of Christmas LIES in your heart.” Something that is lying in your heart makes me think of a sleeping creature. I looked up the word, and wow, what a crazy example: “The church lies in ruins today.” Where the Holy Spirit LIVES in your heart, active and from God, is for the believer to always walk through life close to God.
If you get the Christmas message through children’s movies, books, or even Coca-Cola advertisements, you will get a very downgraded, almost unrelated version of the story of Christ coming to humanity, sent from God—the miracle of Christmas.
God uses everything to bring folks close to Him if they are looking to have a close relationship with Him. The Grinch story of a mean, green, furry, reptilian-looking creature having his heart grow in the end does not really accomplish this mission—less than 2%.
And there will be some who pooh-pooh what I am saying and encourage children’s imagination in this way. Just understand this is the miasm in action.
- Children could enjoy a petting zoo and imagine the animals who were present in the stable.
- A shepherd could come dressed in olden-day clothing, bring some sheep for the children to pet, and speak of what it might have been like to see the angels in the night sky.
- Three individuals dressed in kingly costumes could speak to the meaning of the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh—why they brought these gifts, how they followed the star, their journey, and their knowledge of the greatest King of all, the King of God’s family, coming to Earth. Perhaps they could even bring a camel.
- A man dressed as Angel Gabriel, the angel who spoke to Mary and Joseph, could tell his story of the great honor of being chosen to announce the coming of Christ.
… There are so many ways to approach this that have real ties to the birth of God’s Son. There are likely 100 ways to use children’s imagination and follow more closely the idea of growing closer to God and the miraculous meaning of Christmas.
