''Thankfully, unbelievers are welcome to join the party anytime. They're welcome to help themselves to the gifts, anytime. They're welcome to meet the Honored Guest anytime. There are a lot of freebies out there, available for the taking. Anytime. So for anyone who hasn't yet come in out of the cold, for Pete's sake open the door and come inside! There are gifts aplenty. I think you'll find that party is a whole lot more fun when it has a purpose...'' And the Honored Guest is a pretty neat guy when you get to know Him.There is a passage from a book called Not Buying It by Judith Levine. Disgusted with what she sees as a consumer culture in New York City, this progressive author and her partner embarked on a year-long project to buy nothing but necessities. I find it an interesting (if cynical) read.
But one particular passage always leaps out at me. While taking a late-evening walk on Christmas Eve to visit some friends, the author (an atheist) and her partner spontaneously slip into the back of a small church during the candlelit service. To her surprise, Ms. Levine finds herself weeping. "[P]erhaps I weep in envy of faith," she writes. "The comfort of knowinganything without skepticism. An atheist never really comes in from the cold."
The aching pathos of those words haunted me from the first time I read them. They are a naked glimpse into an atheist's soul. She's right, of course. An atheist never really does come in from the cold. This realization seems especially poignant at Christmas when so many people are rejoicing.
The Bible references celebrations all the time. Jesus' first recorded miracle took place at a celebration (the wedding at Cana). But in all cases, Scripture makes it clear these celebrations have a point, a purpose. And the purpose in each case is the guest of honor, whether it's a king or a bridegroom or a foreign diplomat or a passing visitor or a Messiah in a manger.
A feast without a guest of honor is meaningless, like a wedding without a bridegroom. It's merely a celebration of gluttony and excess. Overindulgence is kind of fun, to be sure, but don't mistake "fun" with "meaningful," because they're not the same thing.
Christmas, of course, celebrates the ultimate Guest of Honor. Everything we do – sing carols, give gifts, smile at strangers, donate to charity, decorate our homes, build gingerbread houses, see the "Nutcracker," sing Handel's "Messiah" as a flash mob in a mall – all these things consciously or unconsciously celebrate the birth of a very special baby, the ultimate Honored Guest.
When unbelievers feel a keen ache from their lack of belief – as is written in the powerful passage above – it's because they've caught a glimpse of that Honored Guest but know they won't meet Him. Or more precisely, they refuse to meet Him. They deny He exists. They cannot or will not take the opportunity to say hello, and in doing so they miss out on unbelievable richness and joy.
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