"Daddy Can't Hear You"

 For years I was given a subscription to Sport Illustrated for Christmas. It’s arrival each month was something that my wife Erica was well aware of. She noted how I would “disappear” into its pages as I read through its content. On one occasion I was pulled out of my reading when I heard her telling our daughters: “You’ll probably have to wait. Daddy can’t really hear you when he’s reading.” 

Over time, I came to acknowledge I had a bit of a problem in terms of my capacity to remain present in the real world when I was reading the magazine. As often as I could remember, I tried to open the magazine only when I was assured of having sufficient time to read it without having to worry about “disappearing” from something or someone important.

It is a strange phenomenon that I am sure that many people can relate to. We get so engrossed in a task or activity that we become quite blinded to the world immediately around us. While my example was relatively innocuous, it can take on much greater significance. 

There are far too many stories of parents who are so engrossed with work or other things that they are never present in their children’s lives. It is actually possible to be physically present with people while remaining emotionally or spiritually disconnected. Just think of the last time you had a conversation with someone whose phone seemed to hold greater attraction than your presence. They can be seated inches away from you but never really be “with” you.

I think we are all so conditioned by this experience with people, even those who we know love us, that we can carry it over into our relationship with God. We acknowledge that God is omnipresent and “with us” wherever we go, but we still carry a vague sense that he might be distracted or bored or otherwise occupied in a way that prevents him giving us his full attention. 

Or we know our own hearts and the subtle ways we wander and hide, and think that God must get tired of our antics. In this scenario, our hearts imagine His begrudging presence where he keeps checking his watch, wondering how much longer he’ll have to put up with our wayward and wandering ways.

The good news of Christmas is that God is with us heart and soul. In becoming flesh, Jesus became everything we are and everything God meant us to be. He is acquainted with grief, acutely aware of the power of temptation, and knows what it is to be abandoned and betrayed. He knows us because he became like us, and in doing so he is more aware of what is going on in our lives than even we are.

God is not subscribed to Sports Illustrated, doesn’t have social media accounts to check, and certainly is not so overwhelmed by work that he ever “checks out”. He doesn’t have better things to do and isn’t planning his next vacation when we go to Him with the same old struggles again. God with us means that he is fully present with us and for us, intimately and deeply connected to the goings on of our hearts and minds and bodies.

Consider this Christmas that Emmanuel, God with us, is the best gift we could ever have been given. He is ever mindful of us and His love for us is such that He sent His son to die for us. Something so personally costly will certainly hold his attention. 

Also consider the following questions as you spend that days and weeks ahead bustling to all manner of gatherings and celebrations:

If God’s presence with us is the best gift we could be given, might it also be true that the best gift we can give others is our full and undivided attention? 

What beauty might arise this Christmas from being fully with and present to those we love? 

What tasks and to-dos tend to make you “disappear” from others, even when physically present? 

What self care might you need to undertake in order to be “with” people this season?

Celebrate Emmanuel, God with us by being “with” people this year. A season full of gatherings is rich and beautiful because of those moments. Let’s not let them pass by with our noses buried in “Sports Illustrated.”