Love, Charlie Brown, and Lucy this Advent season
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“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
Our family loves Christmas-themed movies. I wrote a list of them a few years ago. It probably needs updating because that list seems to grow every year. That list doesn’t even include the holiday television specials that have bombarded the airwaves for more than 50 years. In spite of Santa’s punk-headed nature in Rudolph is always a must-see. So’s Frosty. But neither one of them compares with A Charlie Brown Christmas.
In our house, it’s really not the holiday season until we watch Charlie Brown and the Gang prepare for their Christmas play. You know – the one with the Christmas Queen. In the midst of this grand adventure of missing the point, humble Linus steps on stage to answer the season’s most burning question:
“Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?”
Charlie Brown
Linus, the enduring example of innocence and childlike faith, points to the season’s meaning by reciting the Christmas story.
For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
Linus, reciting Luke 2::10 & 11 (KJV), emphasis mine
I’ve always viewed this short, humble entry into the litany of Christmas television specials as great illustration of why Jesus stepped out of heaven, wrapped himself in flesh, and became a baby.
Christmas happened because of love.
Jesus came to earth for all of the Pigpens of the world who can’t find a way to stay clean if his life depended on it. He came for all of the self-centered Lucy van Pelts who find a way to make everything – including the Christmas play – about themselves. It was for all the rambunctious, undependable, and vulnerable Sally Browns. It was for all the LInus van Pelts, full of fear and insecurity. And Jesus also came for the charlie browniest of them all, Charlie Brown – the loser who can’t even pick out a decent Christmas tree.
Jesus came for them. The broken. The arrogant. And the outcast. He came for the unpopular, unruly, and the unwanted. When i was leading ministry teams, I did my best to drill this thought into the volunteers who worked with me. I believed in it so much that I even gave them Charlie Brown and Lucy Christmas ornaments (among other things) to remind them of our mission. If Jesus came for people like the real-world Peanuts Gang, we should be ministers to the Peanuts Gang, too. Because Jesus loves them.
He came for the successful and the losers. He came for the sinner and the saint, the pious and the atheist, the wealthy and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly. the teetotaler and the junkie, the immigrant and the native, the oppressor and the oppressed. Jesus came for you. Jesus came for me.
Because Jesus loves us. This I know.
I’ve compiled a list of songs to help celebrate the love Jesus showed when he became a person. I hope it inspires and challenges you as we prepare your hearts for the celebration of his arrival.
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