A few days before Christmas, 2 of my friends asked me whether I had bought new clothes for Christmas. My name was very simple, “why should I buy new clothes? I don’t remember when was the last time I bought new clothes for Christmas.” I got 2 different reaction, one asked, “Why are you so simple?”, the other one said, “so frugal.”
To me, I feel that it is not the matter of simplicity or frugality. Personally I do not really care whether what I wear is new or old, most of my clothes are old but rarely worn so they look new. So why spend money to buy new clothes and clutter up my clothes rack?
Christmas is not about buying new clothes to wear or getting presents or wishes. Christmas is about the birth of Christ, the coming of the King of Kings into our lives. But how many of us really think that way? I think, for many of us, it’s about having parties and buying gifts, the list goes on.
Of course, not all of us are like that. I know of many who really prepare themselves for the coming of the Saviour. We need to remember that we are preparing ourselves to receive the infant Jesus into our hearts and lives.
Some may argue that what is internal will flow externally. This means that what we wear represents what we are inside. Perhaps this is true. We are supposed to give the best for Christ, to wear our best to worship Him. But remember that the very first visitors to pay homage to Jesus were poor shepherds who had no lavish clothes or gifts to give him. They came because they wanted to worship him.
We can wear the very best of clothes and bring the most lavish of gifts but do we bring our hearts as well? What is external has no meaning if we do not give what is internal. The gifts of our hearts are more important that what we wear. I am not saying that we should wear tattered clothes or short pants to Church. What I am saying is that what we wear should not be criteria for celebrating the birth of Christ.
Of course, we need to wear something that is presentable, something worthy to wear when we come to pay homage, but the most important thing is to prepare our hearts so that we can truly make it a gift to him who is our Lord. And most importantly, Christmas only happens when it happens in our hearts. Until that happens, we can wear whatever we want but Christmas will have no meaning.
When we can truly prepare our hearts as a gift to our Lord, it will automatically flow into what is external to us. Then Christmas would truly be a celebration of the birth of Christ, in our hearts as well as to the world.
