An Inkling
Friday night Sarah and I went downtown for the “Grand Illumination” at the James Center. This was the 25th year for this popular Richmond tradition. It’s a thrill to see tens of thousands of lights come on all at once, filling the cavernous corridors of downtown with their charming sparkle. (If you haven’t been, you can get a more than this photo glimpse through the youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4r9h5cVy-c
Actually I found the people more fascinating than the lights. Here’s why:
§ I’m guessing that there were over ten thousand people gathered – and this in the cold and dark. That meant parking blocks away and walking. We parked seven or eight blocks away, and as we walked we fell in with scores of others doing the same, many with the extra challenge of little children and baby strollers. When people really want to do something, they will find a way to do it.
§ The crowd was a wonderful cross-section of Richmond, racially, socially, and in age.
§ The crowds displayed a simple, child-like delight in the occasion and the spectacle. The plaza swelled with “oohs and aahs” when the lights went on, and then continued to buzz as people resonated with Santa’s antics, or the high school band, the brass ensemble, and the mariachi band.
§ The crowds were polite. The tightness of the space might well have prompted some pushing for the best views, yet I saw people deferring to each other. There is something about the Christmas occasion that can call forth the best from people.
Were all of the people there for the same reason? Yes and no. No, they don’t all know the One who really is “the reason for the season.” But yes, they were all there out of a natural human delight in festivity, celebration, pageantry, and mutual enjoyment.
Sometimes we Christians get too much on our high horse as we exhort the larger culture to “keep Christ in Christmas.” Such exhortations are best directed to ourselves – those who know the Christ of whom we speak. Those who don’t yet know him can only hear such words as stuffy scolding.
We would do better to focus our attention on finding as many ways as possible to unite with our fellow Richmonders in such festivities, and along the way to show them by word and deed that the season does have a reason – a reason of great substance and joy. It’s the something more they’re all looking for, braving even in the cold and dark. We can bring that “something” with us even to cultural Christmas celebrations. We thereby live in the light of the truly Grand Illumination!
Ooh, Aah,
Keith
