Bah Humbug.
I’m not sure if the phrase originated with Mr. Scrooge or not, but it’s become the go-to statement when someone isn’t in the Christmas spirit. And one year, that was almost me.
My husband had been teasing me about how much time and energy it took to get all my Christmas containers down from the attic. But after moving furniture and getting tree boxes in the right rooms, I discovered one of my trees had blown all it’s lights except for one strand. As my husband sat back down in the bedroom to finish his movie and my daughter worked on homework, I sat on the floor cutting lights from the tree, thinking (you guessed it)… bah humbug.
It was a selfish thought. There I was sitting alone in my attempt to make our house festive for the holidays, as my mind entertained thoughts of Christmas past when it was a family effort. I even tried turning on Christmas music but my attitude was still tempted to be pouty. And then the Holy Spirit joined me.
“Is this about you?”
No. It’s about Jesus.
“Then mirror Him.”
BAM. That’s what I needed to remember. You see, when we do anything in our own strength, it’s work–and it’s tiring. In other words, we have to dig deeper and find a different reason for doing certain things. And in this case (and really, in most cases), my bigger reason was love — love for Jesus, love for family, love for creating a happy home.
Remember WWJD? It’s a catch-phrase like “Bah Humbug” too, but in a completely different manner. WWJD means “What Would Jesus Do?” It was made popular a decade or so ago, but it’s still the truth because we are called to mirror Jesus everyday, in everything we do.
Think about it. Jesus could’ve looked at the cross and said something like, “Bah Humbug.” We know His flesh didn’t want to do it.
Jesus dug deeper and found a bigger reason too.
“The entire cosmos is the object of God’s affection! And he is not about to abandon his creation — the gift of his son is for humanity to realize their origin in him who mirrors their authentic birth — begotten not of the flesh but of the Father! In this persuasion, the life of the ages echoes within the individual and announces that the days of regret and sense of lost-ness are over” (John 3:16, Mirror Bible).
It started with love.
It ended with love. And now we are called to mirror that love in ourselves.
After thinking on these things and getting my perspective in the right place, my husband showed up and said, “Need some help?” Definitely. And soon after, my daughter came out of her room and did her homework in the living room with us while we all watched a Christmas movie. Nice.
But what I realized (and need to always remember) is that regardless of others, I have to have a bigger reason for everything. If I don’t, it’ll always be “Bah Humbug” with a potential bad attitude. But when LOVE becomes my motivator, nothing else matters. And in the end, even Scrooge found this to be true.
Let’s mirror Jesus today.
