A Very Yoda Christmas

Time for an informal readers' poll - assuming you have a Christmas tree, how is it decorated?  Are you all about themes?  Does everything match?  Or are you a believer in what I like to call the Christmas tree as a catch all?  There is a little bit of everything on your tree and you like it that way.

We are most definitely part of the catch all clan.  Don't get me wrong, thematic, symmetrical, and color coordinated trees are not bad, it is just not what I grew up with.  Our trees have always been a testament to our...how to say this...eclectic nature.  Yeah, that's it, eclectic!

At this moment our tree is covered with ornaments of all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures imaginable.  There are glass globes, shinny (oooh, shinny) metal snowflakes, felt ribbons, as well as ornaments made from ceramic, plastic (some of them light up and move) and various paper and clay projects constructed by our kids at school.

Each year we carefully (meaning don't let the kids touch the fragile ones) unwrap our ornaments and hang them on the tree.  Within the first two and a half minutes someone (usually me) is asking where a particular ornament came from.  It is truly amazing how my wife or children can remember, in great detail, the events surrounding the acquisition of a particular ornament, events I was supposedly present for, but I have absolutely no recollection of.  There are days when I wonder if they are making it all up to mess with me, but then I realize that it would require more time and effort than they are willing to invest just to prank me.  So, I take them at their word, nod along as if it is all coming back now, and silently search for an ornament that looks familiar.

Some of our ornaments were bought in the store (often after-season clearance), while others came as gifts from friends and family.  Some are filled with memories, some remind us of long-standing jokes, and a few we keep around because our children made them in preschool and we are not sure how to get rid of them without hurting someones feelings.  There are a couple, however, that no one knows where they came from or why we continue to put them on the tree.  One of such ornament is a 4-inch tall plastic Yoda.

I like Star Wars.  A lot.  So do my kids, which fills me with all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings.  Still, I return to the key word here, like.  You know, I like you as a friend but not as a boy/girl friend sort of thing.  It is cool that we hang out and stuff, but I don't see us picking out china patterns and raising a family.  Yes, we own all the movies, and of course I have most of the dialogue from the original three films memorized, but let's put things in perspective here.  I am not obsessed with Star Wars and even if I did have a problem (which I don't) my favorite character is not Yoda.  So how did this replica of Yoda leaning on his walking stick end up on my Christmas tree?

I have this weird vision that a thousand years from now some archaeologists will be digging up the remains of what was our house and discover our Yoda ornament (perhaps they will be ape-like creatures and someone who looks like Charlton Heston will be walking around in a loin cloth as well).  From this one artifact, this one cast-off item, these archaeologists will begin to tell a tale of me and my family, one that involves Yoda, an alter, a liturgy designed to win the favor and blessing of master Yoda, and perhaps even animal sacrifices.  No one will know, or probably even care, that Yoda was not a deity (at least not in our house) but an ornament that we hung on a tree in the month of December every year.

Objects can tell stories, but not always the right ones.  How often do we look at the kind of car a person is driving and make assumptions about who they are and what they do for a living?  We do the same thing with clothing, houses, shoes and various other items (including Christmas trees).  I like to go for walks in the evening when it is quiet and I can think.  Often people will have their blinds or curtain open and their television sets on.  Try as I might, it is really hard not to see a 48 inch plasma filling up a living room and not make some ill-informed observations about the people who live in that house.

There are a number of people in this world who seem, on the outside at least, to have it all together.  The perfect job, family, friends, house, car, etc...  Yet, inside, they are really hurting.  And, there are people who do not have much but are very happy and content with their lives.  And folks who are happy and wealthy, poor and in a lot of pain, and everything in between.  My point is that possessions, or the lack thereof, are not always a good indication of need.  To really know what is going on in someones life we have to make and take the time to get to know that person.  And that is so hard in a culture that values owning things over making time for other people.

This is the season of giving.  Let me encourage you to give something very important this year - your time to someone else.  Get to know them, what they long for as well as what they fear (you can even learn if they have a 4-inch plastic Yoda hanging on their Christmas tree).  And if they are willing, let them get to know you.  Learn someone else's story and allow it to transform your life.  For that is the power in the gift of relationships.  Our joys become complete when we share them with someone else, our pain can be eased by the loving care of another.  That is what Christmas is all about, God's willingness to enter into our lives and allowing us to truly enter God's.  It is what life, true life, abundant life, is all about.  What a gift!

Copyright © 2010, Roger Burns-Watson, All Rights Reserved