day 22, Christmas from a Toddler's Perspective

Good Monday morning. Whew! The rush is over, the paper cleaned up, and some of you ambitious people have your tree down already! I am one of the keep it up until New Year's people. So, since the tree is still up, that means I can still talk about the Christmas Story, right?! I was going to talk about the wise men further today, but instead, I’ve decided to talk about the truth I have found in a child's Christmas.

Shaelin is my granddaughter, now 3½ years old, and does not stop running (or talking) from the minute she wakes up until she goes to sleep at night. She is very well spoken and intelligent and focused, and of course, beautiful, with huge bright blue eyes, and more spunk than you would think such a small package could hold! (Of course, I’m not at all prejudiced!) She and my daughter lived with us for a while after she was born and I am especially close to her.

Anyway, I’ve observed her this season and also last Christmas, and I’ve learned so much by watching her, as I always do. Because of her innocence, she takes things at face value. She is a joy to spend time with and she loves to come play at Tisi’s house (that’s me). She lives in pure honesty. She hasn’t learned the trait of covering up, hiding, lying.

I have a nativity set I’ve had since my children were little. It is unbreakable and I’ve always allowed them to play with it. So last Christmas was the first year that a new generation has played with it. Shaelin went straight to it almost every time she came to the house. Over the years, I’ve added a few pieces, the last one being the “inn”. There is an innkeeper outside with his hand pointing people on down the street. The door opens and there is a light on in the inn.

When Shaelin first pulled her stool up to the table to stand and play with the nativity, she was drawn to the baby. I told her his name was Jesus and she picked him up and in her little girl inborn nurturing ways says, “Oh, baby Jesus” and held him close to her. Then she took him in one hand and with the other went “tickle, tickle, tickle”. Then she informed me he needed his diaper changed. To her, he was a baby, just like every other human baby, and she treated him as such. It bothered her that he was outside in the stable, and every time she left the house, I would always find baby Jesus just inside the door of the inn. She knew he needed a place, and that he did not belong outside.

Then on Christmas night last year, all the kids and Perry went to see Benjamin Button, and Shaelin and I stayed home and played. She sat in my lap and we were drawing pictures on a doodle board she got for Christmas. I drew a rough picture of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and sang “Away in a Manger” to her. Then I said, “Christmas is Jesus’ birthday”. And we sang Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, Happy Birthday to You. And I love what happened next. She walked over to the nativity and got Jesus and brought him back to me. Then she realized that on a birthday there are presents. She got up out of my lap and said, “Oh, baby Jesus, I find you a present”. She went over to the tree and looked under there for something to give to Jesus. There still was a small box under the tree that I had gotten a candle in the year before as a gift, but the box was so pretty I just wanted to put it under the tree. There were snowmen outside, nothing religious on the outside of this Christmas box, and on the inside it was just blue with stars, like the sky. There was nothing in it. She went right to that box and picked it up and brought it back to him. And said “Happy Birthday Jesus, here is you a present.” And we opened the box. And she decided it should be a house for him, a room for him to stay in. And so, that is now Baby Jesus’ home, and every time the lid would go on the box, she would say “open the door and let Jesus in his house”.

Now, don’t you know that I will ALWAYS have that box under my tree on every Christmas?? It will be a reminder to me. That a child, in her innocence, saw so clearly, that Jesus needs a place to call home. That he became just like us, that his mother held him and tickled him and changed his diaper and he was a real human child. And that, on his day and every day, you should seek to give him a gift. You give an unused package, pretty on the outside, but empty inside, and you open the door and you allow him to come in and make it his home. It doesn’t get much more simple than that, does it?

Thank you Shaelin for the gift only a 2-year-old could give her Tisi. It was my best gift of all. The gift of innocence and love and giving.

I pray he has found a home in you.

Merry Christmas
Teresa