Christmas movies are kind of a given during the holiday season, and of course everyone has their own favorites. For my family, The Santa Clause and Miracle On 34th Street sit among the best. We also love watching Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation – we love the show in general, and the holiday special earns a spot in our yearly line up. For me personally however, nothing can ever beat A Charlie Brown Christmas.
There’s a lot I love about it, but it’s the meaning behind the movie that makes it so special for me. It’s not just that Linus tells Charlie Brown about the birth of Jesus; that’s an easy motif any holiday special could use. Rather, it’s the way that meaning impacts Charlie Brown that I love so much. Before Linus recites from Luke chapter 2, Charlie Brown is depressed and frustrated. He is, after all, frequently abused by his peers, and everything seems to be working against him. But once he remembers the humble way in which the Savior was born, it lights up his face. His concerns and stresses depart, and he skips off through the snow holding his meager tree with joy in his heart.
That’s how the message of Jesus’ birth should be. It should, for so many reasons, fill our hearts with gladness and joy to know that God sent his own Son into the world for us. It should remind us that no matter how small or forgotten we may feel, God loves us more than we can possibly imagine.
Shortly after this though, Charlie Brown’s frustration resurfaces. He fails at the simple task of decorating his tree, and thus abandons it in the snow. But then Linus comes along and sees it, and notes that perhaps it wasn’t all that bad after all. He then adds an interesting phrase: “maybe it just needs a little love.”
That’s true enough, and could provide its own thoughts I’m sure, but this year I found myself reflecting on a different aspect of this comment by Linus.
Love is something our world is rather obsessed with in a way. Especially in Western culture, love is like some magical elixir that solves everything. If you just have love, you can move mountains. If you just have love, all things are possible. If you just have love, nothing else really matters. Love can make anything and everything okay. So of course a little love can make a meager, dying tree, into a beautiful symbol of holiday cheer.
But A Charlie Brown Christmas can remind us of something important: love is nothing without Jesus. The very notion of love is rooted in God himself. And more to the point, as the apostle John tells us in 1 John 3:16, we know what love is by seeing what God has done for us in Jesus. He reveals to us what real love looks like. The reason Linus knows to show love to a meager tree is because he also knows God has shown love to meager, sinful people like us.
I’m thankful when I hear people talking about love, but we should never forget what real love looks like. Love doesn’t look like warm fuzzies, and smiling faces, and anything that just makes me feel good. Love doesn’t even just look like helping people, though of course that’s always good to do. Love looks like God becoming man and sacrificing himself in our place. And so, love looks sacrificial and challenging. Love looks holy, pure, obedient, and righteous. Love, simply put, looks like Jesus Christ. So if we want to better love others, let us first come to better love Jesus.