Be Like Buddy
Matt and I decorated for Christmas a few weeks ago. We didn’t get to last year because we were in the midst of packing and moving, so it felt extra special this time around. We typically watch a Christmas movie or listen to Christmas music in the background as we decorate, and this year the movie Elf made the cut.
As we began transforming our home, a line early on in the film caught my attention. Buddy the Elf, an adult man raised in the North Pole, is sitting in class with elf children. Their teacher has them repeat a list of the three most important elf rules, which everyone seems to know by heart:
Treat every day like Christmas.
There’s room for everybody on the nice list.
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear.
These are cute and make sense in a Christmas movie featuring both Santa and his elves, but the second rule in particular got me thinking in a bit of a different direction.
We are in the season of Advent, which consists of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve (and all of the time in between). To put it simply, advent is a time of waiting. This season has dual meaning for believers. We prepare and wait for Christ’s birth; when He came to live among His creation through the most humble of circumstances. We also prepare and wait for Christ’s return when He will judge the world and make all things new.
In the world portrayed in the movie Elf, “There’s room for everyone on the nice list.” Which is sweet, and maybe a little cheesy too if we’re being honest. However, it got me thinking about why Christ came in the first place. That precious baby who was born in a manger to a young, ordinary girl came so that all could be saved. Christ, who is fully God and fully human, desires for all of creation to be redeemed, including each and every person made in God’s image.
So now, in the waiting for His return, there should be an urgency. It’s not enough to say, “I’m saved, I’m good.” It is obviously a beautiful thing to be in a relationship with our good God, but that relationship should send us out to a hurting and broken world in need of God’s love and light. As Pastor Mark discussed in our service this last Sunday, we need to be able to take ourselves out of the center of the story. Why? There are lots of reasons, but here’s just one: if we place ourselves at the center, we don’t care if others don’t know the Lord. There is no mission beyond just basking in our own salvation and blessings (or wallowing in our own woes).
We must see the bigger picture. We serve a God who leaves the ninety-nine for the one. We serve a God who came and died for the sins of all. We serve a God who has made a way for all to be forgiven and made new. That way is narrow, yes, but it is still available to everyone.
If we really believe that there is room in God’s Kingdom for all, like the elves in the movie believed there is room for everyone on Santa's nice list, we can’t rest in our own salvation while ignoring those around us. If you have watched even a few minutes of the movie, you know that Buddy can’t help but spread Christmas cheer to those around him; his joy is infectious. He didn’t keep his love for all things Christmas (and syrup...) to himself. In the same way, we shouldn’t keep the good news of the gospel to ourselves. There’s room for everyone in God’s Kingdom, but how can people know that if we don’t tell them or live like it's true?
