“Whatever your beliefs, honor your creator; not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen . . . yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.”

–Bradley Whitford (American actor)

Imagine this: It’s Christmas Eve. Per usual, you’ve overlooked some items you’ve got to have for the Christmas dinner . . . and the last place you want to be is at the grocery store. But here you are.

Christmas music blares from the speakers. Aisles are full of shoppers and their carts, doing their best impersonation of cars zigging and zagging for position in the “Departures” lanes of a major airport. You notice the checkout lines are lengthening, and your mind goes to what will definitely be a delay in your return home, where a hundred other things on your to-do list await.

Then you notice a man standing between the aisles and checkout, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him. He’s holding onto a cart with a few groceries in it. Thinking nothing of it, you move on, but he’s still there when you come down the next aisle . . . and the next . . . and the next.

Weird? Confused? Looking for his wife? Up to no good? The various scenarios play through your mind and, in today’s world, “up to no good” is certainly a leading possibility.

Finally, you’re ready to go through checkout. You’re in line at the register next to the express line–the one for ten items or less. Hardly anyone’s in that line because, well, who sacrifices their sanity to go grocery shopping on the day before Christmas and only buys ten items or less?

One individual. A frail, older lady in a well-worn winter coat. Yes, you count the items (don’t we all do that?). Ten. The max. You look up from counting only to see the man who’d been standing still for so long move in right behind her. The cashier rings up the woman’s groceries and reports the total. The lady slowly lowers and shakes her head and then starts putting a few items back in her cart. And then it happens. The man grabs the items from the cart, puts them back on the belt, and whispers to the cashier–just loud enough for you to hear–“Ring hers up with mine.”

Are you kidding? Who does that? Those questions run through your mind as you look at the woman, tears forming in her eyes. She turns to the man, grasps his hand with her withered one, and weakly utters, “Thank you.” What in the world just happened? A perfect stranger picks up the tab of a woman who otherwise would have left the store with less than what she needed. A kind but unmerited gesture.

That, my friends, is the very definition of grace. Amazing!

In the same way, God chose to send his Son to Earth to live in human form for about thirty years, showing and teaching us how to live. And then He died as the atonement for our shortcomings, our sins. That, too, is grace. In my opinion, it’s the most beautiful word in the Bible.

While “Blue Christmas” is iconic, Christmas Vacation is hilarious, and Santa Claus is marketing genius, they have nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas. Rather, we celebrate the arrival of the Christ Child in a world full of sin and need for redemption.

So ponder that this Christmas season. And when you’re caught up in the secular frenzy of what we know to be the holiday season, stand still, be mindful of God’s grace, and look for ways you can emulate it . . . and I’ll try to do the same.

May you and yours have a most blessed Christmas.