By Thomas Kotchka
After updating me on the activity on the valley road, nothing, Billy asked if I had any questions. “Well, Billy” I said, “it’s more of an observation than a question but, is it just me, or do the stars seem brighter tonight?”
Billy looked up at the sky, then answered “They’re brighter. Maybe because it’s stopped raining.” And then he added, sort of as an afterthought, “You know, Joe, this is the kind of night I imagine was over Bethlehem.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Billy. I almost forgot, it’s Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas.”
Billy dittoed the greeting back, and as he started to leave, I said “Billy, I know Christmas is about Jesus coming from heaven to earth. And you’re always saying that Jesus is coming again soon; so, do you think He might come, tonight?”
Without hesitation Billy says “Yep.”
“Really. You actually think He might...uh...show up tonight?”
“Tonight” Billy replied, “would be a perfect night.”
I thought a moment then said, “Well, pardon my $25 word Billy, I don’t get to use them too often out here, but isn’t it… IRONIC… that you’re in a foxhole with a long rifle waiting for the ‘Prince of Peace.’”
Well, Billy didn’t answer, just sort of shrugged his shoulders but I remembered something he had said, oh back around the Fourth of July. “Billy, didn’t you say your Dad fought in ‘Nam and his Dad in World War 2? Did they spend Christmas Eve in a foxhole waiting for the ‘Prince of Peace’?” Billy thought for a moment and said “I think they did. I guess it’s a ‘family tradition’.”
Family tradition. (Pause). Yeah, family tradition. “You know Billy, the wife and kids always go to Christmas Eve service. I never got into the church thing. Presents, a big meal, and a bit of the ‘Christmas Spirits’; that’s Christmas for me”. So, you know what Billy says? “Sorry.” “Sorry,” I says. “Sorry that I didn’t go to church on Christmas Eve?”
“No, no”, Billy answered, “sorry that you won’t have Christmas. If Christmas is presents, food, and a drink, then you’re going to have to rely on an occasional mortar round for a present, an MRE in a can as your feast, and the closest thing you’ll get to a drink out here is the Jim Beam ad on the back of an outdated TIME magazine.
“Well,” I says to Billy, “Christmas is for kids. Say Billy, when you were a kid did you believe in Santa Claus?”
Billy thought for a moment then said “St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Santa Claus, part legend, part story, maybe part true, but now mostly an advertising gimmick surrounded with elves and a red-nosed reindeer.” Then Billy says to me, “You know Joe, there is a Christmas story in the Bible; maybe you remember it from when you were a kid.”
“Don’t have to go back that far,” I answered, “My wife said her Dad always read the Christmas story to her and her brother and sister over and over and over until they had it memorized. She wanted me to do the same. I guess it’s a “’family tradition.’”
(In a changed voice) “’And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed’” --- (regular voice) “And old Caesar is still taking taxes from me. That was 2,000 years ago.”
(Changed voice again) “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace”... (regular voice)” Excuse me Billy for sounding cynical, but I’m not convinced that the “Prince of Peace” has done his job. How many wars have we had in the last 2,000 years, about 2, 000?”
“Actually”, Billy says, “it might be more. You see, the ‘Prince of Peace’ didn’t come to bring peace among neighbors but rather to bring us to peace with God.”
“Yeah, maybe” I said, “But Christmas is still for kids. I think adults grow out of Christmas. The way the world is, us being here, why there’s really not much to celebrate.” And you know what Billy says, he says, “Maybe you’re celebrating the wrong Christmas.”
“Wrong Christmas??! There’s only one Christmas, it’s tomorrow, the 25 th . It’s been like that for a couple thousand years.” (Short Pause) “Right?”
“Well,” Billy says, “there’s actually three Christmases. There’s the commercial Christmas, starts before Thanksgiving and goes to the last ‘after Christmas sale’. It is focused on ‘stuff’ and has a ‘you deserve this’ promise. Oftentimes what’s left after the toys are broken and the batteries run down, is an empty feeling. And there’s the traditional, Currier and Ives type Christmas. It lasts a couple weeks around Christmas. It’s focused on families and being HOME for Christmas. It’s filled with holiday traditions and singing Christmas carols. It gives the cousins a chance to fight and the adults can catch up on the weather across town, across state, across the country. It’s a time to find out how little Tommy is doing in school and “Donna’s in college, why I remember when she was only this high”. But don’t mention religion or politics. It’s sort of like a 4th of July family reunion picnic at the lake, but you don’t have to play croquet with Uncle Fred."
"And the last Christmas is the one you’ve got memorized from the Bible. It doesn’t focus on presents or feasting but on why the creator of the universe set aside the privileges of Heaven to be born a human in a manager.” ‘In a manger’. Can you imagine that? Not a kingly palace but a foxhole-grade stable. It’s a Christmas that reminds us of our broken relationship with a Holy God and how God Himself set about to restore that relationship. You might say that Christmas is a celebration of God fulfilling His promise to send a savior.”
I thought a moment and said to Billy, “That must be the part that goes ‘Behold, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord’”? “That’s it,” Billy answered
“So,” I says to Billy, “no feasting, no reindeer, no Santa, --no presents?” “That’s right,” Billy answered, “No feasting, no reindeer, no Santa.”
“Wait, you said no feasting, no reindeer, no Santa, but you didn’t say no presents. Is, is there a . . .. a present?”
“You just need to unwrap it,” Billy says. “Ever see those signs at big sporting events on TV?”
“Yeah, the ones that say John something.”
Then Billy says “’For God so loved the world’, ---even Joe---, ‘that he gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him’ –even Joe— ‘should not perish but have everlasting life.’”
I looked Billy right in the eye and said “You… you put that part in about Joe.” Shaking his head, Billy says “No, God did, because He wants to have a personal relationship with you.”
A personal relationship. A personal relationship with God. “You know Billy, I’m scheduled to rotate back to the States next fall. Maybe I’ll go to Christmas Eve service with the wife and kids. Might even look in to that personal relationship thing.”
Then Billy continued the Christmas story, “Then the shepherds said to one another ‘Let us… NOW… go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass’.”
Pause
“Suppose”, I said, “I could even look into that personal relationship next September when I get back to the States.”
“Or,” Billy said, “--maybe--even tonight.”
