Back in the days when I was being dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age, computer nerds, trying to explain the wonders of it all to me, used to spout unintelligible terms that just confused me more. Most of them I’ve forgotten. But one I do remember. It was WYSIWYG, an acronym for ‘what you see is what you get.’ It is, of course, related to what you see on the computer screen being the same as what would print out on your piece of paper. But I’ve often thought that that term also explains why it is that for some people the story of Christmas is a thing of unutterable beauty that brings enormous comfort and meaning to life, while for others it is a futile attempt to try to recreate the magic of childhood at a time in life when a bit of fun is about as close as they can get to it.
What you see is what you get. What I see is the coming of Immanuel – God with us – as much this Christmas as he was that first one.