Baxter is on a diet again. The veterinarian suggested that I change his food to a metabolic weight control formula. When I took him for a weigh-in after a month, he gained 2 oz. So much for that idea. Baxter likes his new food, so I am still trying to see if it kick-starts his metabolism. I am skeptical, but ever hopeful. Baxter is simply looking for something to eat. He doesn’t know he is on a diet. He just knows when his stomach feels empty, and he lets everyone around at that time know that he has that feeling.
None of us likes to feel discomfort. We find ways to get rid of that feeling as soon as possible. We take a pill. We eat or drink or do both. We shop or spend money on gambling. We take a day off or simply stay in place and quit working. Whatever it is we find a way to sooth ourselves, to quiet the nagging feeling of displeasure, to change the situation so that we can feel alright again. We don’t like a sense of being ill at ease or unsatisfied, and we do what it takes to restore our sense of well-being and satisfaction.
Herod was uncomfortable with the Magi’s visit because he wanted no rivals to his power and position. He tried to trick them into being his accomplices in getting rid of the unpleasant threat, but God’s Spirit put them on the right track, a different way home. Growing more uncomfortable with his unknown competitor, Herod orders the death of all Hebrew boys under two years of age. He lashes out from his discomfort, and he makes many lives miserable and sad.
Contrast this picture with that of Simeon and Anna when the infant Jesus is presented in the temple. They are overjoyed. The hopes of their long lives are fulfilled, not by anything they accomplished nor possessed, but by seeing the fruit of God’s work beginning to unfold. Their prayer was hungry for the grace of salvation, and it stayed unsatisfied for many years. But now their souls’ appetites are satisfied in the Word become flesh in their arms. God is faithful.
Christmas tells us it’s good to be hungry for the right things, but dangerous to ourselves and others to desire the wrong things. Herod’s life ends in a tragedy of loneliness fostered by the distrust and hatred of his own people. Simeon’s and Anna’s lives are blessed by God in their old age, because they sought a sign of what God was doing to save them, and eventually, the whole world. The right diet—one rich in prayer, fidelity and the vision of faith—feeds our desire for God’s presence in our lives. The wrong diet of power seeking ambition and jealousy will just make us anxious, bitter and destructive. Eat well this Christmas season.
