Ready for Christmas

Remember Scrooge, when his heart had been changed by the Spirits of Christmas, which are of course the Spirit of Jesus. He was suddenly ready to receive God, and all of the “God things” in his life: invitations to give to the poor and share with fellow human beings; the opportunity to embrace the nephew who had disappointed him, to forgive his nephew and, what is even harder, to receive his forgiveness; and the responsibility of cherishing his clerk, Bob Cratchit, helping him raise his family, and finding some way to heal their Tiny Tim.

At the end of the 1952 movie with Alistair Sim, Scrooge orders Cratchit to go out and buy a new coal scuttle. Then he sits at his desk laughing and saying to himself, “O, I don’t deserve to be so happy.” Then, tossing his pen over his shoulder, he chuckles, “I can’t help it. I just can’t help it”. These are the last words he utters in the movie. But it isn’t really happiness we see portrayed in this scene. It’s joy.

When I was a child my father had a little poem he used to read to us each Christmas Eve. It was one of the many Christmas traditions we had in our family, and I share it with you in the hope that it will help in your Christmas preparations as it always did in ours. It is an invitation to refocus on what really matters at Christmas; an invitation to JOY.

Ready for Christmas

"Ready for Christmas", she said with a sigh,

As she gave the last touch to the gifts piled high.

Then wearily sat for a moment and read,

Till soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.

Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream,

"Ready for Christmas? Just what do you mean?

Ready for Christmas, when only last week,

You wouldn't acknowledge a friend on the street?

Ready for Christmas, while holding a grudge?

Perhaps we had better let him be the Judge.

For how can the Christ child, come, and abide,

In a heart that's so selfish and filled with pride?

"Ready for Christmas, when only today,

That homeless boy there and you looked away,

Without even a smile to show that you cared?

The little he needed, could well have been spared.

Ready for Christmas? You've worked, it is true,

But just doing the things that you wanted to do.

Ready for Christmas? Your circle's too small.

No, you are not ready for Christmas at all."

She awoke with a start, and a cry of despair.

"There's so little time, and I've still to prepare.

O, Father forgive me; I see what you mean,

To be ready is more than a house swept clean.

It's more than the giving of gifts and a tree.

It's a heart swept clean that he wants to see.

A heart that is free from bitterness sin.

Ready for Christmas, and ready for him."

--Alice Haneche Mortensen