Do we ever ask ourselves this question?
Do we ever think about Who God really is?
God isn't an old man with a beard, a distant, remote Father-Figure who created the Universe and then walked away, uninterested in how things turned out.
Here is the miracle of miracles! God is both holy, infinite Mystery beyond our imagining and the Creator-Father-Mother Who loves us beyond imagining.
God, the Invisible One, gave us the ultimate gift for Christmas: God we can see, God we can hear, God we can touch. God with the smell of a manger.
God gave us God's very Self for Christmas.
Jesus, the Mercy of God, came to be one with us in the flesh.
To live with us in joyful compassion!
To die to share our lives to the very dregs, our suffering, our last breath.
To rise so that, wrapped in his love, we too can rise.
What does God want for Christmas?
Isn't it obvious?
Look in the mirror.
God wants YOU for Christmas.
God wants you to give yourself as totally to God as God gave and gives God's Whole Self totally to you.
Maybe you think you've given your whole self to God.
Maybe you go to church and pray your prayers.
Maybe you sign up for retreats or workshops to hear the latest preacher or teacher and go to classes to learn the latest Scriptural exegesis and you've read the latest popular spiritual book or Bishops' document -
But where is your heart?
Maybe you've given your mind to God. You know all your church's teachings. Laws. Dogmas. Doctrines.
But where is your heart? Have you given your heart to God?
Have you let God all the way into your heart?
Of course not. Not all the way. Not any more than you've given your complete heart to your parents. Spouse. Siblings. Children. Friends.
None of us have. It's the work, the discipline, the ongoing process of inner transformation, of constant love-expansion -
Learning how to be completely vulnerable. Open. Understanding. Ready to live as a free, mature, committed, compassionate adult, empowered by God's Spirit.
Ready to grow into being another Jesus. Another Christ. With his heart for the world, not ours. With his commitment to peace and justice, mercy and forgiveness, freedom and equality and dignity for all.
Part of our hearts say "yes."
Part of our hearts shrink and hide.
Part of our hearts say "You ask too much!"
Because, after all, we're sinners, into self-sabotage even though God's offering us life and light.
And Jesus kneels, looking at us, weeping over us as he wept over Jerusalem.
But we can always begin again.
We can kneel next to the manger.
We can look into the face of the One Who created us, the Son Who lived and died intimately with us, the Spirit who continually re-creates us.
We can say "I give you my heart. Again. More of it this time. For Christmas. For always. Help me to keep giving you more and more, the parts I don't even know that I've hidden away."
What does God want for Christmas?
You. Unwrapped. Waiting to be taken. Waiting to be loved with a love you can't even begin to imagine.