"Gold, Circumstance, and Mud"

There is a story written by Rex Knowles entitled "Gifts of the Wise Children; or Gold, Circumstance, and Mud" that rings true for me this time of the year especially after last week's tragedy: 

It was the week before Christmas, I was baby-sitting with our four older children while my wife took the baby for his check-up. (Baby-sitting to me means reading the paper while the kids mess up the house.)
 
Only that day I wasn't reading. I was fuming. On every page of the paper, as I flicked angrily through them, gifts glittered and reindeer pranced, and I was told that there were only six more days in which to rush out and buy what I couldn't afford and nobody needed. What, I asked myself indignantly, did the glitter and the rush have to do with the birth of Christ?
 
There was a knock on the door of the study where I had barricaded myself. Then Nancy's voice, "Daddy, we have a play to put on. Do you want to see it?"
 
I didn't. But I had fatherly responsibilities so I followed her into the living room. Right away I knew it was a Christmas play for at the foot of the piano stool was a lighted flashlight wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a shoe box.
 
Rex (age 6) came in wearing my bathrobe and carrying a mop handle. He sat on the stool, looked at the flashlight. Nancy (10) draped a sheet over her head, stood behind Rex and began, "I'm Mary and this boy is Joseph. Usually in this play Joseph stands up and Mary sits down. But Mary sitting down is taller than Joseph standing up so we thought it looked better this way."
 
Enter Trudy (4) at a full run. She never has learned to walk. There were pillowcases over her arms. She spread them wide and said only, "I'm an angel."
 
Then came Anne (8). I knew right away she represented a wise man. In the first place she moved like she was riding a camel (she had on her mother's high heels). And she was bedecked with all the jewelry available. On a pillow she carried three items, undoubtedly gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
She undulated across the room, bowed to the flashlight, to Mary, to Joseph, to the angel, and to me and then announced, "I'm all three wise men. I bring precious gifts: gold, circumstance, and mud."
 
That was all. The play was over. I didn't laugh. I prayed. How near the truth Anne was! We come at Christmas burdened down with gold—with the showy gift and the tinsely tree. Under the circumstances we can do no other, circumstances of our time and place and custom. And it seems a bit like mud when we think of it. 

But I looked at the shining faces of my children, as their audience of one applauded them, and remembered that a Child showed us how these things can be transformed. I remembered that this Child came into a material world and in so doing eternally blessed the material. He accepted the circumstances, imperfect and frustrating, into which He was born, and thereby infused them with the divine. And as for mud—to you and me it may be something to sweep off the rug, but to all children it is something to build with.
 
Children see so surely through the tinsel and the habit and the earthly, to the love which, in them all, strains for expression. [The Guideposts Christmas Treasury (Carmel, NY: Guideposts Associates, 1972), pp. 197–98]

Sometimes I wonder how to deal with all of the "gold, circumstance, and mud" in life, especially after the loss of so many beautiful innocent lives this week. I've struggled to write about it.  Every time I see a picture of the angelic face of Emilie Parker or any of the children lost, I have to choke back tears.  The only thought that gives me comfort is that of the arms of the Savior encircling these 20 sweet children as they returned home to Him, bearing their own sweet loving gifts.  Each of these special children seemed particularly amazing, and the love and light that they showed us with each of their lives tells us just how wonderful they were.  

Jack Pinto's family released a statement saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."

"He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life. Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."

Olivia Engel's family tells us, "Olivia was smart, bubbly, and unbelievably entertaining. Her physical loss will be felt every day by those who loved her most, but her sparkly spirit will live on."

Alissa Parker, Emilie's mother, told Katie Couric she doesn't know how to answer people anymore when they ask how she is doing. "I feel like the only way to move forward," she said, "is to think about these beautiful children and their lives and be so thankful that we had them."

I am thankful for the Sandy Hook victims and survivors.  I am thankful for their enduring examples in all the "circumstance and mud."  I am thankful for the "gift" of each of their lives. 

Many years ago our Heavenly Father sent the most pure and innocent of us all to be slain for the sins of the world; a perfect being who never had an impure thought or action, ever.  How grateful I am for God's tremendous gift of the Savior and the Savior's willingness to overcome the world so that He could welcome these precious babies home in His loving arms after such a tragedy.

Life is a perfect gift to all of us, one that we should cherish.  I hope that my life and all our lives will be more than "gold, circumstance, and mud."  In the tradition of the wise men, I hope that we can all bring goodly gifts to the Savior this Christmas season by reaching out to those around us, letting go of ill will, becoming more like Him.  Surely there is more that we all can do to show our gratitude for the Lord's ultimate gift and sacrifice.  Surely there is more that we can do to show our deep abiding love for Him.  There is already enough evil in the world.  Let us do what we can to bring the world His light, so that tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting never happen again.