This Friday evening, December 18, in Vancouver, there is a very creative fund raiser (The Children’s Wish Foundation), using the theme of the ugly ‘Christmas sweater.’ It is a very big, splashy social event that raises a lot of money for this charity.
Everyone must wear their ‘ugly’ Christmas sweater. The bigger the festive eyesore, the better!
Who came up with this creative idea for fund raising? Who could turn a moment of social discomfort (to be gifted with an ugly sweater) into a moment of socializing and fundraising?
Is there a message in all this?
As we come to celebrate the birth day of our Savior in a week’s time, we can see the hand of God in all this. God uses the very ordinary and the rejected parts of humanity to do great things. The cast-offs (the people who do not count) are sought out by God to bring salvation (God’s great love and mercy) to the world.
Stand at the Christmas crib and say out loud, “But these are all nobodies, displaced people in our world.’ And God has chosen Mary (young and without power) to bring forth the very Son of God. And God sent his angels to call the shepherds (the day labourers) to welcome the Saviour of mankind? And the people considered beyond God (i.e., the Gentiles) are called to gift the Christ child?
This is how God actually works. The little ones, the ones who have so little social power, are chosen by God to recognize what God is doing among human beings. The no-bodies are called to Bethlehem!
And this is where the ugly Christmas sweater fits in. This is a gift that you only wear to show the donor that you appreciate the gift, But, you will leave that ugly sweater folded up in your drawer until next year at this time.
The ugly Christmas sweater is an indication of how God upsets the way humans value things. The people we consider to be of immense worth are moved to the sidelines; the forgotten ones are raised up!
What a surprise for humanity? What you considered unimportant (the ugly Christmas sweater forgotten in your dresser drawer) has now become the great moment of revelation.
Kudos to the people who first conceived this fund raiser fourteen years ago in Vancouver. There is a wonderful lesson here.
Have a wonderful Christmas. Wear your festive eyesore! But be brave enough to celebrate with our God who just upsets human planning.
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