The animated How The Grinch Stole Christmas! is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Who can watch the Grinch and his little dog and not laugh?

Well… the Whos wouldn’t I guess. Or at least they had no reason to laugh that Christmas morning. Still, they sang their little Who-hearts out and with or without the stuff, Christmas happened.

It wasn’t fair that their things were stolen, and I’m not sure I’d be as holy as a Who. I like the presents I’ve chosen for my family, and I’d be ticked if someone took them away.

The Bible tells us the characters surrounding Jesus’s birth had every reason to feel their situation wasn’t fair either.  Zechariah couldn’t speak, Elizabeth couldn’t have children, Mary was a pregnant teenager, Joseph an unsure fiancé, shepherds were scared, wise men road weary, donkey exhausted, baby in a barn. The whole thing could have brought a chorus of complaints. But it didn’t. It brought the Welcome Christmas song.

Despite what they’d gone through neither the ancients nor the Whos thought of themselves as victims. Despite what we go through, we don’t have to be victims either. We can choose to accept God’s messages, timing, grace, angels, stars and miracles. All of those are part of the story, too.

We can know what the Grinch knew – it’s absolutely not fair at all. We don’t deserve a bit of it, but even so, Christmas is almost here.