I think we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas.
Those words were written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from a prison cell in Berlin, Germany, on December 1,
1943. Earlier that year, he was arrested by the Nazis who suspected he was trying to undermine the German war effort. He was writing to his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer. He continued:
The very fact that every outward circumstance precludes our making provision for it will show whether we can be content with what is truly essential. I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious; the emptier our hands, the better we understand what [Martin] Luther meant by his dying words: ‘We’re beggars; it’s true.’ The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we
perceive that our hearts should be Christ’s home on earth.
Bonhoeffer’s family was well-to-do and highly respected throughout Germany. He had lived a life of
relative ease. Yet at Christmastime in 1943, at age, 37, he was in a prison cell almost twenty-four hours a day, living on meager rations, and being regularly interrogated – Tortured? We are not sure – for information. He could see his fiancée for only an hour once a month. He worried and prayed for friends and relatives who were fighting for Germany. Many lost their lives.
And this thoughtful Christian (a theologian, author and pastor) anticipated an “exceptionally good
Christmas.” How could that be? Had he lost his mind?
No, he was someone who knew the heart of Christmas was not the gift-giving, nor time with family nor a break from work. Christmas, he knew, was about God coming into the world. Christ was the greatest gift any of us could receive. And the gift of Christ was, for him, enough.
“…the emptier our hands, the better we understand…” The gift of Christ was sufficient.
Hitler’s henchmen were right in their suspicions. Two years later, Bonhoeffer was proven to have been
involved in the Abwehr plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler. Bonhoeffer was hung on April 9, 1945, just two weeks before the camp was liberated by the United States 90th and 97th infantry divisions.
The gift of Christ was sufficient. Chist is enough for each of us as well!