Christmas is different this year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic it has been stripped down. What has been stripped though is all the usual trappings of commercialism and consumerism that have nothing to do with the object of our faith – the birth of Jesus Christ, God becoming flesh.
I hate the pandemic. I hate the death and economic destruction the pandemic has wrought. I hate that I am not able to sit down face to face, maskless, with family, friends, neighbors, and the people of my faith communities. But, I do know that the simpler Christmas stripped of worldly ways, when we come to adore the child in the manger and call him Lord of Lords, King of Kings, remains true and real and can not be taken away by pandemic, hatred, falsehoods, racism, or any other worldly disease. For that I give thanks to God.C