Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Competition is a very real part of each of our lives. We can easily divide these encounters into two distinct groups—those that have eternal consequences and the rest whose importance ranges all the way from significant to negligible. Into the first category we will place the conflict between good and evil, between God and Satan. Or if we put it in more personal terms, the tension that exists between love and ego. When we look at it in those terms, ego has some distinct advantages, the most obvious of which is, it is designed for conflict, whereas love, real love, wins only by a willingness to surrender, something foreign to ego.
Let’s take a quick look at some of those areas of competition that are of little importance. Which bird, in American culture, is most clearly associated with a holiday? The turkey would undoubtedly win hands down. Vying for the remaining positions would be the eagle, the cardinal, and the dove symbolic of Independence Day, Christmas, and Easter.
But no one really cares who wins that competition. Only a slight step up from this is whether the NFL team from Arizona, the Cardinals, win or lose. After all, even for a fan, it’s only a game. We do spend a decent amount of time focusing on such things as grades and salaries, but in the eternal scope of things, these things won’t really matter much either. One competition that is harder to distinguish is the effort exerted to win the affections of the sought-after one. The challenge here is distinguishing between true love and ego, for oftentimes we can’t even make that distinction ourselves.
If we go back to that symbol of Christmas and focus instead on the real Christmas, we can see love in its purest sense being demonstrated. The enormity of God becoming man is beyond our comprehension. And yet, that we believe, is why God will ultimately win, because He was willing to step down. May we not forget why love wins this Christmas.