Solve for X

I walked through the gorgeous house not knowing where to look next.
Room after room was elegantly decorated for Christmas.
Fresh flowers filled the vases; antiques collected were now on display.
I was experiencing the Yuletide tour at a grand estate house.

I had my favorite rooms; I had my favorite style of furniture.
I tried to imagine myself living in such opulence.
I couldn’t; it was a lovely place to visit but not a place I would want to stay.
It is a world I know nothing about, but for the afternoon I got a glimpse of that life.

There were more Christmas trees than I could count.
Each tree was decorated with a particular theme.
One tree was filled with dried flowers from the gardens.
One tree was filled with pinecones that were the size of a loaf of bread.

The house had a main spiral staircase that wound for three stories.
I got dizzy looking up from the bottom at the beautiful concentric circles.
I could imagine the women in their long dresses descending the staircase for dinner.
The conservatory had a fifteen-foot tree that was decorated with vintage ornaments.

Yet the story of Winterthur is also the story of the du Ponts, a family who came to the United States in 1800 and through their ardent devotion and resolve created a powerful business, a war-time legacy, a senatorial authority, and a museum that preserved the essence of American decorative arts. From 1839 to 1969, four generations called Winterthur home. (Taken from The Story of Winterthur)

Amid this beauty and wealth, I heard a very different story of the people who lived there.
The family, though friends with many presidents and first ladies, was very humble.
They were really a very simple people, kind to their employees and their many guests.
I imagined a room filled with presents beneath the Christmas tree.

I was wrong.

We were told that the family believed that Christmas was a religious holiday.
They worshiped nearby; they did not want the focus to be on the material gifts.
A lovely room, off the conservatory, was displayed much like it would have been.
Baskets, with a name tag, were next to each chair, with only a few presents inside.

The room was cozy and inviting.
The baskets had only a few wrapped boxes in each.
Christmas was a time to remember Christ as the Gift.
The focus was not lost and was in fact highlighted above all else.

All my presuppositions were wrong.
I imagined the lavish lifestyle to be carried over to the family’s Christmas celebration.
Instead, singing around the piano, playing games together, sharing meals was the focus.
Reaching out to others, serving them, making them feel important was most important.

They did not want the focus to be on the material gifts.
Those words kept ringing in my ears as I drove home.

I thought of the controversy over the word Christmas.
The naughty and nice list of the stores that say Merry Christmas and those who refuse.
The anger over the removal of the word Christmas from store advertisements.
The all-inclusive Happy Holidays that is supposed to please everyone.

The worst substitute for saying Merry Christmas is saying Merry X-mas.
What does that even mean?
I actually thought about that greeting in terms of a math problem.
Solving for X when X was the unknown.

Is that what people mean when they say or write that phrase?
Merry _______ (fill in the blanks).
Solve for X because we don’t know what X is.
X can mean whatever you want it to mean.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Aeropagus and said, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:22-28)

The men of Athens covered their bases.
They had all sorts of altars to all sorts of gods.
Yet somehow, deep within their being, they knew there was something more.
There was emptiness concerning their multiple gods but they couldn’t explain it.

Paul knew.
He could explain.
He could solve for X.
He could tell them about this unknown God that could not be denied.

Can you solve for X?
Can you make known what others do not know?
Can you tell about the One who is the focal point of the holiday?
Can you explain about the One who is the reason for the season?

They did not want the focus to be on the material gifts.
Neither do we.
The focus is all on Him.
Though we do indeed give gifts to each other, we have to know the reason why.

Solve for X.
You know the answer.
The answer is Christ.
It is always Christ.