"I Will Honor Christmas in my Heart, and Try to Keep it All the Year"

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” 

Ebenezer Scrooge, waking up on Christmas morning a converted man, in the story A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

One day last week, I took Charles Dickens' book, The Life of Our Lord: Written for his children During the Years 1846 to 1849, to a coffee shop, ordered a Café au lait, and read the entire little gem in about an hour's sitting. Dickens, much to many people’s surprise, was a Christian, and his doctrine, fairly spot-on.

Therefore, it’s no mystery as to the Christian theme running through A Christmas Carol and Dickens’ other works.

The context of the above Dickens quote within his story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s life is this:

It is spoken from the lips of a re-born man—Scrooge—who has a heart-conversion after experiencing a contrite and broken spirit.

He now not only comprehends Christmas, but desires Christmas.

And this sudden illumination of the meaning of Christmas for Scrooge is not merely that of a holiday adorned with plum pudding!

No. This new meaning of Christmas is the Christmas of the heart which becomes the Spirit-change of the heart, akin to the circumcision of the heart spoken of in Romans 2:29.

Scrooge’s words are spoken post-regeneration, after repentance of the heart and mind.

And lo and behold, when this happens, Scrooge laughs. His joy overwhelms. He wakes up from prison a free man.

Many of us can relate. We can also relate to Scrooge’s ensuing awkwardness in re-establishing his relationship with his nephew Fred, his sister’s son, whom he has ill-treated throughout many years.

And what, we are curious to observe, will Fred’s reaction be to his newly commutated Uncle Scrooge?

Fred, in spite of being at the receiving end of his Uncle Scrooge’s bitterness for many years, never shut the door to his uncle, so that when the time came when God worked out, finally, Scrooge’s demons, Fred lovingly received his Uncle.

Fred could have refused and self-righteously chosen to live off of past offenses. In other words, he could have chosen to "keep account of" everything his uncle did to hurt him. 

But he didn’t. Instead, he received Scrooge’s personal invitation to go forth in a redeemed relationship.

Fred, though clearly cognizant of Scrooge’s affronts, always understood what Henry Wadsworth Longfellow elucidated so well:

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

This is Scrooge.

And Fred was the only person who could discern it.

In my opinion, Fred is the most Christ-like figure in A Christmas Carol. If we are looking at how to “keep Christmas” in accordance with Jesus—our Lord for whom we mark the day, Christmas—we have no better every-day example than Fred, the nephew.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 says,

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Fred, in his response to, and even conversation about, his brooding and self-absorbed uncle, lives out this love. He will not join his friends and family in verbally disparaging his uncle, and that leads me to believe that Fred didn’t disparage his uncle in his heart, either.

“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45b).

We, as Scrooge, may not have even one Fred in our life to receive us. We go forth in the love and grace of Christ anyway. 

We go forth regardless of whether or not others take a chance on our ongoing regeneration in Christ. We accept that we have caused and may continue to cause, much confusion, if not consternation, among friends and family as we internally change from one person into another from year to year. We continue to run the race.

And we, as the nephew Fred, receive in Godly love those who are running the race too, and keep the door open to those who have not yet begun to run. We don't force them through the door, we wait for them to walk through it. 

And finally, we take to heart the admonition to: 

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (Romans 12:14-18)

and soberly consider the clarity of the Lord's will:

"He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the LORD require of you

But to do justice, to love kindness,

And to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

It is when we are trapped inside of our own Scrooge that we find Micah 6:8 impossible. 

It is when we are freed that we ultimately discover God's love for us and for others. 

And though at first, and sometimes still, confusing to apply, we make the attempt.

And when we begin the attempt and are received by the "Freds" of the world, it is then we experience what God-derived love coming out of a humanbeing looks like. 

And it is when we, in turn, humbly sow Godly love throughout our time on earth, that Christmas is kept. 

copyright Barb Harwood

“Not that I already have obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” Philippians 3:12-16