Source: Fares, Please! (1915), Everything Upside Down, p. 185
Context: Christmas turns everything upside down. This is the central truth of the incarnation — "Immanuel, God with us." The upside of heaven come down to earth. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,... full of grace and truth." Men miss the entire meaning of Jesus when they see in him the highest upreach of man; he is God reaching down and making common cause with man's struggle. The meaning of Christmas puts down the mighty things in men's minds from their seats — place, riches, talents — and exalts the things of low degree — humility, simplicity, and trust.
“The central core of truth is that Christmas turns everything upside down, the upside of heaven come down to earth. The Christmas story puts a new value on every man.”
Whoops! It's Christmas (1959)
Context: The central core of truth is that Christmas turns everything upside down, the upside of heaven come down to earth. The Christmas story puts a new value on every man. He is not a thing to be used, not a chemical accident, not an educated ape. Every man is a V. I. P., because he has divine worth. That was revealed when "Love came down at Christmas." A scientist said, making a plea for exchange scholarships between nations, "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person." That was what happened at Christmas. The idea of divine love was wrapped up in a person.
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Halford E. Luccock 24
American Methodist minister 1885–1960Related quotes
Whoops! It's Christmas (1959)
Context: A lady, who looked like an animated Christmas tree with packages dangling from every limb, and I bumped and spilled. As I was trying to pick up the packages she gasped out, “Oh, I hate Christmas, anyhow! It turns everything upside down.”
I said, “That is just what it was made for.” But this lofty sentiment did not stop her dirty looks at all. But it is the big thing about Christmas!
Christmas is a story about a baby, and that is a baby's chief business, turning things upside down. It is gross slander on babies that their chief passion is food. It is rearrangement! Every orthodox baby rearranges everything he sees, or can get his little hooks into, from the order of who's important in the family, to the dishes on the table. A baby in a family divides time into two eras, just as Christmas does. There is B. C., which means "before child," and A. D., which means "after deluge."
“It is the nature of conquest to turn everything upside down.”
Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“If you sleep upside down, do you dream upside down?”
"Rooster Teeth Video Podcast #225" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHTnytDN8Us. youtube.com. July 9, 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2014.
“We are the people who turned the world upside down.”
Attributed to Lee in "Harpy Hall of Fame: Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)" at The Pursuit of Harpyness (4 February 2009) http://www.harpyness.com/2009/02/04/harpy-hall-of-fame-mother-ann-lee-1736-1784/; no earlier attributions have as yet been located.
Disputed
Source: Fares, Please! (1915), Everything Upside Down, p. 185
Context: There is far-reaching appropriateness in the fact that the world's immortal baby story, that of Bethlehem, should be a story of turning things upside down — for that is a baby's chief business. It is a gross slander on babies that their chief passion is food. It is rearrangement. Every orthodox baby rearranges all that he sees, from the order of importance in the family to the bric-a-brac and window curtains. The advent of every baby completely upsets his little world, both physically and spiritually. And it is not one of the smallest values of the fact that the Saviour of the world came into it as a baby, that it reminds men that every baby is born a savior, to some extent, from selfishness and greed and sin in the little circle which his advent blesses.
“Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down”
“Lift the world up by your levity,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.”
"Come, Holy Harlequin" (1974)
Context: Teach the crippled how to leap,
Throw their crutches on a heap,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.
Rock, love, carry it away,
Lift the world up by your levity,
Rock, love, carry it away, turn it upside down.