I was out running some errands today and something different caught my eye.
In the middle of the divided highway that runs through the shopping district stood a person holding a sign. Because it was in the shopping district, I was expecting the sign to be something about a giant sale of some sort.
Not so. The sign read Keep Christ in Christmas. It was a hand lettered sign that was attached to a cross. And the cross was being held by a bearded man dressed in the type of robe that Jesus is usually portrayed as wearing.
My first thought was look at that wack-a-doo. And I immediately chastised myself for that thought. Because Christ IS what Christmas is supposed to be all about. Properly chastised, I consciously changed my thinking to good for him - not many people would have the nerve to do that.
The traffic light turned red and I took the opportunity to check out the people in the cars around me. Many of them were glancing surreptitiously at the robed man.
If the man had been dressed as Santa, those same people would most likely have been honking their horns and waving.
So why was everyone so uncomfortable with someone dressed as Jesus? Were they thinking, as I first had, that the guy was a little nutty? Or was it just that the appearance of a Jesus look-a-like was so unexpected that they didn't know how to react?
Had it been a live recreation of the Nativity scene in the median of the highway, people would probably have openly admired it - because though it would have been a surprise, it would have fit in with expectations of the season.
So I'm wondering... why are we so uncomfortable with something that's different from our expectations?
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