Every Who — Down in Who-ville — Liked Christmas a lot...
But the Grinch, — Who lived just North of Whoville, Did NOT!
The Grinch hated Christmas! — The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas was written by Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1956. The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature, lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. From his perch atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville.
Envious of the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and, by means of burglary, deprive them of their Christmas presents and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming". However, he learns in the end that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas came just the same.
The Grinch personifies all who view Christmas with disdain, and who, like Charles Dicken’s Scrooge, respond to Christmas with only a “Bah. Humbug!” What is the Christian’s response, in Christ, to those who do not celebrate Immanuel, “God With Us” —who do not celebrate Christmas?
The late Oswald Goulter was for thirty years a missionary to China. The missionary society had sent him money for his transportation home. He went down to a coastal city in India to catch a ship, and heard about a lot of Jews sleeping in the barn lofts in that city. They’d been denied entrance to every country in the world except that one, and they had gone inland and were living in barn lofts.
It was Christmas time. Oswald Goulter went around to those barns and said to the Jews, “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!”
They said, “We’re Jews.”
He said, “I know, but it’s Christmas!”
They said, “We don’t observe Christmas. We’re not followers of Christ. We’re Jews.”
He said, “I know, but what would you like for Christmas?”
“We don’t keep Christmas!”
“I know, but what would you like? If somebody gave you something for Christmas, what would you like?”
To get rid of him, they said, “Well, we’d like some good German pastry.”
“Good,” he said. And after finding some German pastry, and cashing in his passage check, he took boxes of German pastries to these Jews and said, “Merry Christmas!” Then he wired the missionary society and said, “I need a ticket home.”
Later, when he was telling the story to one of his supporting churches, there was a young seminarian sitting in the front row, and he was absolutely incensed. He said to Dr. Goulter, “Why did you do that? They don’t’ believe in Jesus!”
Dr. Goulter said, “But I do. I do.”
How do Christians celebrate Christmas in the presence and influence of Christmas Grinches? Christians hold Christ close to their hearts; they continue, in the face of all disdain, to worship God and give of themselves. The Grinch was transformed by the joyful singing of the Whos:
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he . . . HE HIMSELF...!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!
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