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Thanksgiving hadn’t arrived yet, but I was feeling grinchy.
I love the Grinch. Since I’m known as a strict teacher who requires a lot of my students, my students think I like him because of his mean nature. They also think I hate Christmas. But they also expect me to decorate my room in Grinches every year. They believe it fits my character.
So, when the teacher across the hall put up her Christmas décor two weeks before Thanksgiving, I knew I had to get busy. My wife ordered a small Christmas tree to decorate with my Grinch ornaments, then pulled out all my Grinches and placed them all over the room. We completed the décor by hanging a sign over my door that read, “Merry Grinchmas.”
Some of my eighth graders—who don’t visit my room because I teach them in the computer lab—stopped by to reminisce. My sixth graders were awed, since this was the first time they had witnessed my grinchiness, while the seventh graders remembered it all from the previous year.
But what my students don’t realize until I tell them is that it’s not the mean and nasty nature that I like about the Grinch. Nor the fact that he hates Christmas. Occasionally, one of my students will remember the Grinch’s problem and what solved it. His heart was too small. It needed to grow. And when he witnessed the love of the Who’s down in Whoville, his heart grew. He was transformed. Then, he loved Christmas. And that’s what I love about the Grinch—what he became, not what he was initially.
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26 NLT).
Many of God’s people in the Old Testament had Grinch hearts—too small. God called them stony and stubborn. It took a few captivities in foreign lands to change them. It took God’s love shown through discipline–a little harsher method than the Grinch experienced. Yet, the result was the same.
All of us can feel a little grinchy at times. One of my wife’s favorite restaurants makes me feel that way every time I visit because of their poor customer service. Sometimes, my grinchiness comes out. At other times, I hold it in.
But life can be challenging in many more serious ways—financial setbacks, relationship crumbles, disease, family disruption, unemployment, dissatisfaction, disappointment, rebellious children. Letting God replace our stony hearts with forgiveness and grace certainly helps. Yet, this doesn’t mean life will be smooth sailing from then on. We just view things from an unfamiliar perspective.
That was the key for the Grinch—a different perspective. When feeling a little grinchy because life has gone sour, we must remember God has not stepped away from the throne. He’s still in control, still has our best interests at heart, and still loves us. And knowing that will keep our hearts from going into Grinch mode.
How do you react when you’re feeling a little grinchy?
Martin Wiles
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