After the Glitz and Gifts

Christmas is undeniably special, whatever you believe in. If anything at all. A palpable sense of excitement competes with a breathless air of anticipation. Some await the gift of family and friends; some simply gifts, and others the gift of life. Something for everyone.

Shortly after the current pandemic began, I watched a documentary on the history of the development of vaccines. The pioneers of these extraordinary medicinal breakthroughs were certainly to be admired, but it was the derring-do of the various volunteers – who were basically risking life and limb - that fascinated me.

Cue a lively debate with friends: Was it selfish not to lend one’s body to advance the cause of science? We agreed it probably was...for all of five minutes. After which we happily relinquished our hero-halos and put our own spin on a popular tagline - "Those who can, do. Those who can't, don't.” It’s not for everybody.

Anyways, I got to thinking of that fascinating phenomenon known as "the placebo effect". In layman's terms, this can occur when a patient in a medical trial receives a saline, starch or sugar substitute instead of a real drug but nevertheless begins to feel better. It defies any kind of reasoning, but is documented and attested to. It. Happens.

And strangely enough, as a Christian, I totally get it.

My faith is the spiritual equivalent of a placebo. There is nothing logical about the fact that you are sick and would ordinarily need medical treatment to get well; yet here you are alive and thriving when all you've been given is in all likelihood the equivalent of a vitamin.

In the same way, the conception, birth, life, death (and then life!) of Jesus Christ defies the vivid imagination and penmanship of the world's greatest fantasists; yet I have no doubt that it happened. Is happening.

Dictionaries once told us pretty much all we needed to know about a word. But hey, it is 2020! "Wicked" means 'great' and "slay" denotes everything about living your best life in glorious technicolour. Thus, to strike gold, one needs to dig deeper.

Noted American inventor, Charles F. Kettering, once said that, “Research means that you don’t know, but are willing to find out.” And today’s fact-finding quest has proved this doubly true.

placēbō (LATIN)

- “I shall be pleasing, acceptable”

Could anything be more apt? We are humbled, and take enormous pleasure in the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived as a man so as to be able to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

How do I know this? I delved into the Bible, and it told me so. Why do I believe this? Because I do. Nothing more, nothing less.* It is wonderfully inexplicable and therefore wholly acceptable to me.

Come January 6th then, when baubles and tinsel are carted back to the attic, instead of clutching onto the humdrum once more, perhaps we could embrace the words of the prophet Jeremiah and think of Jesus; everywhere, and inevitably, in everybody...

"Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord."**

Marvellously so. All year round.

*Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. - Hebrews 11:1 CEV

**Jeremiah 23:24