An Unexpected Holiday

One of the things you notice about “Old Scrooge” (as opposed to the changed one, post-hauntings) is that he just can’t enjoy a holiday:

“But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”

And, “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business… mine occupies me constantly.”

The reason, Marley’s ghost tells him, is his invisible chains — forged “link by link and yard by yard” while chasing a golden idol — instead of receiving the true meaning of the season.

But we all know the outcome: Scrooge gets an “unexpected holiday” to see where it all leads.

What’s the moral? Getting a glimpse of one’s end beforehand is a good thing; it provides a much-needed wake-up call of sorts.

Christmas provides an excellent opportunity, every year, to get that wake-up call — to remember what’s most needful.

It might not be a golden idol you’re chasing, but chances are you’re chasing after something. And no doubt it’s something that seems good and needful…

That’s when Marley’s regret might hit you: “Business? Mankind was my business…”

Learning from the Past and Future

If a wake-up call does come — as it did to Scrooge- don’t dismiss it. Allow yourself to entertain…

1. the “ghost” that will show you your past story:

Was there a time when something brought pain, sorrow, or shame — maybe a relationship break-down or loss — and you began to let your heart grow cold? Examining our past can help us see why we chose certain roads, and what desire seeped in to take control of our heart rather than Christ.

2. a visit from the spirit of Christmas future, which can also be a wake-up call:

Ask yourself, “What will life be like if I continue on this path I’ve chosen? What regrets or failures in love might haunt me?” After all, no one will look back on their lives and say, “I should have engaged in more business!”

Rejoice!

Lest the visitations tempt you to stay under a cloud of condemnation, there’s good news!

Christmas comes to us again, right in the middle of our shame and regret, and doesn’t ask us to first reform ourselves. It’s always a gift.

Are your hands so full of your own plans to fix things that you can’t receive and then give His love?

It’s always this way: receive (again) as you did in the beginning, and then you will love as you have been loved. It’s all of grace, throughout our whole story.

This Christmas season, may we all receive the Savior’s love, so we can heed this best of wake-up calls to show us what’s most important:

“Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

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