The Three Levels of Christmas

Since I won't be home for Christmas, I won't get to hear my dad recite his traditional "Three Levels of Christmas". So, I thought I would post it to make sure that I got to hear it. I hope you all enjoy this poem about the true meaning of Christmas (not to belittle the LOVE that I have for the non true meaning.......)

By William B. Smart

Christmas is a beautiful time of the year. We love the excitement, the giving
spirit, the special awareness of and appreciation for family and friends, the
feelings of love and brotherhood that bless our gatherings at Christmastime.

In all the joyousness, it is well to reflect that Christmas comes in three
levels.

Let’s call the first the Santa Claus level. It’s the level of Christmas trees
and holly, of whispered secrets and colorful packages, of candlelight and rich
food and warm open houses. It’s carolers in the shopping malls, excited
children, and weary but loving parents. It’s a lovely time of special warmth and
caring and giving. It’s the level at which we eat too much and spend too much
and do too much–and enjoy every minute of it. We love the Santa Claus level of
Christmas.

But there’s a higher, more beautiful level. Let’s call it the Silent Night
level. It’s the level of all our glorious Christmas carols, of that beloved,
familiar story: “Now in those days there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus…” It’s the level of the crowded inn, and the silent holy moment in a
dark stable when the Son of Man came to earth. It’s shepherds on steep, bare
hill near Bethlehem, angels with their glad tidings, a new star in the East,
wise men traveling far in search of the Holy One. How beautiful and meaningful
it is; how infinitely poorer we would be without this sacred second level of
Christmas.

The trouble is, these two levels don’t last. They can’t. Twelve days of
Christmas, at the first level, is about all most of us can stand. It’s too
intense, too extravagant. The tree dries out and the needles fall. The candles
burn down. The beautiful wrappings go out with he trash, the carolers are up on
the ski slopes, the toys break, and the biggest day in the stores in the entire
year is exchange day, December 26.

The feast is over and the dieting begins. But the lonely and the hungry are with
us still perhaps lonelier and hungrier than before.

Lovely and joyous as the first level of Christmas is, there will come a day,
very soon, when Mother will put away the decorations and vacuum the living room
and think, “Thank goodness that’s over for another year.”

Even the second level, the level of the Baby Jesus, can’t last. How many times
this season can you sing “Silent Night”? The angels and the star and the
shepherd, even the silent, sacred mystery of that holy night itself, can’t long
satisfy humanity’s basic need. The man who keeps Christ in the manger will, in
the end, be disappointed and empty.

No, for Christmas to last all year long, for it to grow in beauty and meaning
and purpose, for it to have the power to change lives, we must celebrate it at
the third level, that of the adult Christ. It is at this level–not as an
infant–that our Saviour brings His gifts of lasting joy, lasting peace, lasting
hope. It was the adult Christ who reached out and touched the untouchable, who
loved the unlovable, who so loved us all that even in His agony on the cross He
prayed forgiveness for His enemies.

This is the Christ, creator of worlds without number, who wept, Enoch tell us,
because so many of us lack affection and hate each other–and then who willingly
gave His life for all of us, including those for whom He wept.

This is the Christ, the adult Christ, who gave us the perfect example, and asked
us to follow Him.

Accepting that invitation is the way–the only way–to celebrate Christmas all
year and all life long.