It’s December 24th, a day of romance for high schoolers in Japan. Even Senpai, who never likes to get his expectations too high, can’t help but dream of how Nagatoro would appreciate him gifting her a present today. He...
It’s December 24th, a day of romance for high schoolers in Japan. Even Senpai, who never likes to get his expectations too high, can’t help but dream of how Nagatoro would appreciate him gifting her a present today. He awakens to the harsh reality that he’s “gross” for thinking as much, but the gift he dreamed of is real and he’s determined to give her that present today. But it won’t be that easy; he’ll encounter obstacle after obstacle, though ultimately the answer to finding a way is to keep his eyes on what’s most important—something we might all need to remember during Christmastime.
No, Senpai, it’s not at all!In season two, episode six of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Senpai starts out with the right focus. He’s purchased the gift (check!), wrapped it (check!) packed it (check!), and girds himself on the way to school. Seeing Nagatoro in the hallways, Senpai is just about to take the present out of his backpack when “the friends” ruin the opportunity with their always-perfect timing.
I can definitely relate to Senpai in this instance. I get so excited for the start of the Christmas season. I’ve been waiting all year long for this wondrous time—both the feelings in the air that even those who don’t know Christ enjoy, as well as the “good cheer” emanating from inviting Christ himself to be at the center of the season where he should be.
And so, I pull out an Advent book, preparing to read through it in December. I pray for my heart and the hearts of those around me. I plan on special devotional times with the family. And I begin to make plans for the Christmas service and pray about whom I should invite to join us.
And then, just as with Senpai, I’m interrupted before I even have the chance to put my plans into action. Instead of teenage “friends” though, I get pulled away by more mundane, but equally obnoxious things like packed schedules for my kids, projects due at work by the end of the year, holiday parties that I don’t really want to attend, family obligations that are as full of tension as they are of cheer, and all manner of other stressors that come with the end of the year and the holiday season.
No skeevy bunnies, but nonetheless, distractions find me each holiday season…I’m halted before I even begin. So what do I do?
Senpai, strangely enough (since he’s typically marked by timidity), provides a great model for what to do: He keeps at it. He makes an excuse to get out of the friends’ karaoke night, tries to find an empty room for the gift exchange, flees when said room is actually inhabited by his own incorrigible senpai, escapes the all-seeing eyes of the school’s vice principal, avoids the temptation of lustful teens in the nurse’s office, and eventually makes his way to the one place where he feels he can finally accomplish his task—the school rooftop.
Of course, he’s not alone in the process. Nagatoro, for her part, begins the episode by asking her older sister for advice about a present. She, too, has a present prepared for Senpai and she’s equally eager to gift it. So she becomes an equal partner in making excuses and running all over campus in pursuit of an opportunity to share a quiet moment. And without even realizing it, the present she’s carrying motivates Senpai, who can see it sticking out of her bag and thinks it could be for him.
This year, my experience of the Christmas season began to turn away from stress and the superficial trappings of the holidays and more toward a focus on Christ when my own loved ones joined me in my pursuit of him as the center of the holiday. This wasn’t something I made happen though—it couldn’t have been, just as Senpai could not have orchestrated Nagatoro’s plans. It had to be a natural joining of spirit, not one I impressed on them. If Senpai had dragged Nagatoro all around the building with only his own goal in mind, how long would it have taken before she stopped him dead in his tracks and told him how creepy he was being? Probably not more than 30 seconds. But because she wanted the same thing as him, the two were able to make it past obstacle after obstacle together.
Last Christmas, I had a bit of a meltdown when my family rejected my pushiness about reading a daily devotional together. Their schedules were different from mine and their rhythm in this season wasn’t allowing them to give the kind of dedication to the readings that I wanted. Plus, I had picked out the devotional without consulting them and announced the whole arrangement to them as a done deal. When they expressed their frustration, I became disappointed and acted a bit like a toddler (okay, a lot like one). It was a failure.
But this year, I avoided repeating the same mistake. I didn’t make any suggestions; I just tried to lead by example, focusing on my own devotion to Christ. And one by one, the rest of the family joined in, offering suggestions about what we could do together, like setting aside a Sunday to volunteer for the less fortunate and watching a Christ-centered Christmas movie. Because we were all in it together this year, we’ve more naturally had a much more Christ-centered holiday season.
As I write this, I’m hoping that all this will culminate in a wonderful celebration on Christmas Day that’s about Jesus, since we’ve all prepared for it to be that way. And though I’m not 100% certain, I am confident—though I know some obstacles will certainly still come up even on the day itself. Which is exactly what happens, yet again, for Senpai and Nagatoro once they finally make it to the rooftop!
I wouldn’t be so sure, Senpai!Instead of the quiet corner they’ve been searching for, they open the door to the school roof only to find a dozen couples exchanging gifts (and kisses) with one another. It’s a huge disappointment. Their final hope is dashed. There is no private place to exchange their gifts, which means they can’t exchange them after all.
Of course that’s not how it ends! Who said they needed a “silent night” to celebrate Christmas? After all, even that original “silent night” was nothing of the sort: Between baby cries, animal noises, and visitors both common and supernatural, Joseph and Mary didn’t celebrate Jesus’s birth in silence. They experienced it in a cacophony of sounds from the crowds surrounding them.
And so, Senpai and Nagatoro finally exchange gifts. They’ve each bought one another scarves, a cute coincidence marking their care for each other during this cold winter season, as well as their growing knowledge of one another. In the end, it didn’t matter if anyone else was around; even amid the distractions, they could share a meaningful moment together.
Maybe that was the whole point all along for these two. The gifts are nice, but they’re of less value than the very decision to put away all the distractions and just focus on what’s most important: each other.
What Senpai and Nagatoro show us is that what we think of as distractions or the things that ruin the moment, actually aren’t when we focus on what’s most valuable. It isn’t ultimately circumstances that control whether or not we experience Christmas in a meaningful way, but rather our own decision to keep pursuing that encounter and that time together, whether it’s just with Christ, or our family and friends come along, too. And when we do that, I think we’ll come to the same realization that Nagatoro and Senpai did on that rooftop—everything else is merely noise and will fade into the background when our eyes are set on what’s really most important this season.