Combating the Silliness
I’m always amazed by the bizarre (unique?) “special days” that pop up each month. Take December. There’s National Fritters Day on December 2, Wear Brown Shoes Day (4), International Civil Aviation Day (7), Put On Your Own Shoes Day [who does that the rest of the year?] (6), National Roof Over Your Head Day (3), and, on New Year’s Eve, Make Up Your Mind Day. (Note to my daughters: Please pay heed to that last one.) According to the site I referenced, there are sixty-three such days, meaning there are multiples sometimes. For instance, December 19’s the day to find an evergreen and munch on an oatmeal muffin! Sounds good to me.
No doubt someone has had entirely too much time on his or her hands. Still, I was elated to see our Christian holidays of Advent, St. Nicholas Day, and Christmas Day also on the list. When you mix the spiritual with the secular, some of the silliness is counteracted.
Let’s jump back to National Roof Over Your Head Day. This one intrigued me. It’s noted as “a day of appreciation for the things we have, starting with the ‘roof over our head.’ It is very worthwhile to be grateful for and recognize when our basic needs are being met.
It seems to me that the greed in the world today obscures the difference between want and need. I’m sure that when Mary and Joseph realized the birth of Jesus was near, they didn’t want their firstborn to be born in a stable (Luke 2:6–7). But their need to have a place for the Christ Child to lay his head was met, albeit in a stable. The fact that they were denied shelter in an inn did nothing to diminish the glory of the event (Luke 2:9–10).
God’s greatest gift was revealed to us wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger of straw under the roof of a stable. Following his humble beginning, he became strong, filled with wisdom, and imbued with God’s favor (Luke 2:40). We, too, are so endowed. So whether our roof shelters us in a structure of material simplicity or grandeur, remember our true Christmas gift is the love of Christ. His spirit helps us combat the secular silliness.
