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Week of December 20, 2004

A child's birth brings hope, joy

Gifts acknowledge our love for each other, our love for life

Your Earth

By SUZANNE ELSTON

I recently did a very odd thing. I sent a gift to a woman I have never met. Krista is the daughter of a friend of my sister, and she lives more than 3,000 km across the country from me.

When I heard that Krista had finally given birth to healthy twin baby girls after years of infertility and heartbreak, I felt a strong need to acknowledge their birth somehow. I sent a small gift along with a card that simply said, "Miracles should be celebrated."

The miracle of birth

This week, as we prepare to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, I think I'm finally beginning to understand our compulsion to buy our way through the holidays. Somewhere, deep in our souls, we recognize the true miracle of birth - every birth. Rather than being upset by the commercialization of Christmas, perhaps we should try to understand that our compulsion to buy stuff is based in celebratory joy and a sense of awe that despite everything, life renews.

Having said that, we also need to find more appropriate ways of expressing our joy than stripping the planet of resources and maxing out our credit cards in the process.

This tendency to go overboard isn't entirely a new cultural phenomenon. Even the three wise men brought wildly expensive, totally inappropriate gifts for the lowly child of a carpenter. Unlike the 21st century shopper, their gifts weren't born out of some mad consumerism, but rather out of a desire to celebrate the miracle of a new life that held endless possibility and promise.

Gifts given acknowledge our love for each other, our love for life and our deepest appreciation that despite the darkness, there is hope born in the lusty cry of a single child.
Beyond the truths and legends that surround the story of Christ's birthday, the fact that any child born over 2,000 years ago survived infancy and made it to adulthood is in itself a miracle.

As Lesley Hazelton writes in her book, Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of The Virgin Mother, "The surprise is not that up to three of five people born would die before adulthood, but that two out of five made it through this minefield of physical threat."

But survive the infant baby Jesus did, and in conditions that we can barely begin to imagine. While the death and resurrection of Christ is fundamental to the religion that bears his name, it is his birth, the birth of hope and possibility that we now celebrate.

Given the estimated $16 billion that Canadians will spend on gifts this holiday season, the clear message is that we are betting on a miracle. Like the wise men, our joy is so great that we are compelled to acknowledge it in some physical form.

Christmas, it is often said, is for the children, but I don't think so. I think it's about the children, about the Child, about life and resurrection and hope. Historically, we know that Christ was most likely born sometime in late August or early September, and yet we celebrate his birth at the darkest time of the year; the passing of the winter solstice.

Even though we have months of freezing temperatures ahead of us, each passing day from here on brings us a few more moments of daylight and one day closer to the return of spring and the new life that it brings. Christmas lights illuminate the darkness; tree and indoor decorations create a festive air of anticipation and delight.

Gifts given acknowledge our love for each other, our love for life and our deepest appreciation that despite the darkness, there is hope born in the lusty cry of a single child.

Peace, joy and happiness to you and yours.

Recommended website:

For more on Lesley Hazelton's book, Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother, (Bloomsbury, 2004), visit www.marylife.org.

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