The Grinch and the Growing Heart
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, who came as a child so we could all grow into our cherished place as children of God.
When I was a kid, long before cable TV and streaming services, there were special events on television for people to build their evenings around. The Christmas season was filled with shows that you could only see in the runup to December 25th—who can forget “Frosty the Snowman,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and my favorite: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
The Grinch special aired for the first time on this date in 1966—I was three and a half years old. I don’t remember that first showing, but after that it was a regular part of the season for me. Here’s an ad for the first showing of this holiday classic.
In the story, the Grinch has a heart that was “two sizes too small,” and he hated Christmas and anything that reflected joy or happiness or generosity. After stealing the gifts from an entire village, he notices that they still celebrated—they still sang songs and cared for each other, even though all the material gifts they expected to give and receive were gone.
Then something amazing happens.
The Grinch, when he sees that Christmas had a meaning beyond all the spending and decorating and wishing—when he starts to understand what’s really happening, his heart grows three sizes. Now my math might be wrong, but if his heart was two sizes too small and it grows three sizes, then the Grinch’s heart was bigger than it was supposed to be all along. It was a Christmas miracle.
Maybe the lesson of the Grinch is an important one. No, I’m not saying that any of you need to grow your hearts (well…), I’m suggesting that in the coming of Jesus—in the birth of the Messiah in fulfillment of all of God’s promises—I think that is what grows our hearts and shapes us into mature and healthy disciples.
The Grinch didn’t trust that anyone was good or generous or loving, and it stunted his growth. That kind of cynicism and negativity is all over our culture and even in our church at times. As we think about the meaning of Christmas, the glorious gift of God becoming human and living with his creation—as we wrestle with what the Christmas miracle means for us, maybe a big part of it is simply that God wants to grow our hearts and make us vessels of his love and mercy and grace.
Wouldn’t THAT be a thing.
Maybe God came to us to change our bitterness for grace, our stinginess for generosity, and our capacity for loving each other from empty to full? What if that turned out to be the meaning of Christmas?
I think that’s exactly what Jesus came to do and to teach.
As you move through the holiday season, with its pressures and busyness, my prayer for you is that you can take some time to think about what this holiday—this holy-day—is all about. Find some moments to see where you can share with someone else the love that Jesus showed you.
It’ll change your life.
It might even grow your heart a few sizes.
May that be so, today and always. Merry Almost Christmas!
Pastor John