The Joy of Creating Joy
Crafting a magical Christmas morning with gifts for those we love is more than just a capitalist intrusion. Could it teach us about the heart of a Father seeking to bring endless joy to us all?
Originally published in Public Square on December 25, 2023, with a title I quite dislike
Have you ever had a spiritual experience at an amusement park?
I do, every time I take my boys on our yearly pilgrimage to Lagoon - a fun spot in Utah my own grandparents and great grandparents used to work at during the depression.
The transcendent moment happens right near the beginning of a ride when a look of pure delight appears on my boys’ faces.
The only thing that compares with it - with the possible exception of wrestling with my boys or serving them ice cream - is Christmas morning.
The unparalleled delight of Christmas morning. No moment more quintessentially evokes the wonder and joy of childhood than daybreak on December 25th.
And not just for the kids. Parents all over the world arise that morning having done whatever they can in the weeks and months leading up to make that morning special. I grew up with a father who went out shopping on Christmas Eve once for a few more presents - worried his young family didn’t have enough for the day to be magical for his children.
Many parents grapple with the opposite worry too - feeling concerned about too many presents and too much focus on those presents … sometimes feeling like unwitting accomplices in the capitalist take-over of something sacred.
No doubt, this is something we should be paying attention to…the last thing our society needs today is more entitled children raised to be entitled adults. Whatever shortfalls there exist in America today, this isn’t one of them.
But could we sometimes be overdoing the guilt on this question - so much so that we hardly even enjoy the celebration anymore? Amidst all the hand-wringing, could we be missing what the joy on people’s faces - young and old - could be teaching us when a tender gift is received?
What if there’s something divine about that too?
The joy of bringing joy. The spiritual glimpses at Lagoon have been so profound that I found myself pondering them days afterwards: How could I be touched so deeply in a place literally dedicated to “amusing” people more?
Those four Littles following me everywhere were dependent on me for their well-being. Yet most days, that meant working enough hours, supporting my wife in the even harder work she did on a daily basis, getting them bathed, and hoping for a few minutes of time with Monique before we fell asleep exhausted.
But this day - shuttling them to their next favorite ride - my mind and heart could rest almost entirely on one thing: bringing happiness and sweetness to their lives.
“Let’s leave early enough to get there when the lines are short. Anyone hungry yet? Let’s try to get one more ride in before the park closes!”
Of course, the number of rides isn’t really what matters here - nor the number of presents on Christmas morning. What’s most striking is the unforgettably sweet feeling that wells up inside on both occasions.
That glimpse of their face as they board another ride. That curious smile as they open a present planned for months….one more stroke on a living canvas just right enough to become a work of art.
In all this, it’s the joy of bringing joy into other’s lives that overwhelms. There was something undeniably divine to me in these moments - above and beyond and quite independent - of all the encroaching profane consumerism.
It felt like I was experiencing a small piece of what Father in Heaven - and yes, our Heavenly Parents - must experience as they do everything they can to bring to pass the joy, peace and eternal life of their children.
Commonality amidst theological differences. This teaching can be sticking point between our people and other Christians, and yet notice the common ground we also enjoy on this point, courtesy of Paul’s teaching to the Romans:
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
And to the people of Corinth: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
While it’s true Latter-day Saints may interpret this differently than our evangelical friends, all Christian believers anticipate some pretty amazing things are up ahead for those who trust in Him enough to lay their lives in God’s hands.
A “heavenly gift” Paul calls it to the Hebrews - adding to the Corinthians, “thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”
Modern revelation to living prophets makes clear that joint-heirs really does mean “joint-heirs,” with the Lord promising his followers that “all things are theirs” if they yield their hearts on a covenant path that leads to “exaltation.”
Many of our Christian brothers and sisters aren't ready to go there yet. But even if we can leave unspecified what’s underneath the wrapping, the prospect of an “unspeakable gift” God has prepared for those who love Him can makes believers a little giddy with anticipation…like a child on Christmas morning, albeit for something far better than gifts we’re used to giving each other. Consider just how much better:
A gift unlimited in supply - Rather than an exclusive item with a limited number before it sells out, Nephi describes the ready abundance of this gift among those willing to receive it - “and they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.”
A gift offered freely - This is a “free gift” thanks to “the righteousness of one” and a feast provided “without money and without price.”
A gift absolutory right to seek after. Aside from cute early lists for Santa, most of us learn eventually that seeking after gifts can be selfish. Yet we are encouraged in this case to “seek earnestly” and “eagerly desire” what the Lord’s prophets call “the best gifts.” We are also encouraged to “lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift.”
A multifaceted gift that is actually many gifts. While Latter-day Saints consider eternal life as a whole as “the greatest of all the gifts of God” - that life (which we understand to be a way of living that is how God lives) also includes many specific, beautiful facets. Like a diamond you can turn in various directions to see unique angles, the life God leads us into includes a “diversities of gifts” by the same Spirit - with various lists throughout scripture of the sacred offerings God invites us to pursue (healing, knowledge, faith, hope, tongues, charity, Holy Ghost).
“All these gifts,” the Lord says, “come from God, for the benefit of the children of God.”
Of course, much of this will be nonsense to some, including some believers who insist that “the Lord no longer worketh…by gifts.”
If that, indeed, is what our lives feel like, then perhaps it says more about us than God. As Moroni taught, “if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them…. neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.”
“If these things have ceased,” Moroni’s father Mormon likewise nudges our attention back to our own view of God - and how much that allows us to trust Him.
The gift behind the gifts. There was a cost, of course, to this gift of gifts being provided. “In the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way” Moroni teaches, explaining how his coming to the world Christians celebrate this week “prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift.”
“Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift,” he says directly to the reader, “if ye will but have faith.”
Faith in Him - the lamb of God who came to free us all from the darkness and despair, the anger and agony, the sickness and pain.
“He is the gift,” as we like to say.
Our family has felt more of that than normal this year. But we’re definitely not alone in this agonizing world.
Yet there has been peace and joy in our heartache, helping us through. And I believe that can be the case for all. “He knows our need, to our weakness he’s no stranger.” (If you’ve made it this far, stop reading and listen to this - the best version I’ve ever heard…)
Our rescue now - and into the future - I believe all depends on our faith, as prophets ancient and modern have taught repeatedly. “Every good gift and every perfect gift” really does come “from above” - arriving in our hands and hearts from “the Father of lights.”
“All things” created in this beautiful world really do “bear record” of Him - perhaps even the fallible gifts we give each other on Christmas morning and other times in the year.
After all, if we, being prone to mischief, “know how to give good gifts unto [our] children,” then “how much more” does our Father of lights know how to “give good things” to all of us?
My witness this Christmas weekend is that this feeling we all get in providing something beautiful to a loved one - along with that look on their face - symbolizes something higher. It bears witness to a reality even more wonderful than Christmas morning.
A reality that’s right up ahead for all who get ready to receive it.