DECEMBER 2011 - I don’t where I first got the idea that Christmas was about midnight snowfall and warm reunions, but somewhere along the way I did. And, with that notion, I allowed myself to become deluded into thinking that I had failed at Christmas.
Oh, it’s not for lack of trying. It just never seems to work out. Our Christmas tree always has a hole in the branches somewhere. If family does show up, they come with a chip on their shoulder or worse. Shopping is a hassle. People are ungrateful, a sea of curmudgeons and Scrooges. Christmas isn’t perfect. It’s chaotic. Ever noticed that nobody talks about hustle and bustle the rest of the year?
But this year, I’ve decided to let that go. My friend Cheryl planted a seed for that when she said the most memorable Christmas Eve sermon she had ever heard was about the chaos of Christmas. I don’t know what the preacher said, but it doesn’t take much Bible reading to see that Jesus birth was holy, but it wasn’t silent. The angels weren’t sweetly singing. Bethlehem wasn’t lying still. Bethlehem was chaotic, riotous, smelly, irreverent and impersonal. It was teeming with people required to report to their birthplace for a census. It was so congested there wasn’t any room at an inn for a man and his pregnant wife. Once they found a place to rest, it wasn’t a hotel room. It was a smelly and noisy stable filled with a constant influx of animals coming in from other places for the census.
Yet, in the midst of that mess, God produced a miracle.
So, when you’re out Christmas shopping and you’re being jostled around by an angry, single-minded, rude, disgruntled humanity, remember that’s more like what Mary and Joseph experienced. When you’re frustrated with the lights and the smells of burned food, puppy poop, 15-different scented candles and a fake Christmas tree; when the phone won’t stop ringing, your kids won’t stop asking questions and your spouse can’t find the clear tape, that’s probably a lot more like what Mary experienced the day Jesus was born.
If you’re anything like me, You’ve spent years trying to create the perfect Christmas. You may even have hit on it once or twice. Or, maybe you’ve become an excellent stage director. Everything looks perfect. The sound track (cue Carpenter’s Christmas or Amy Grant, please) and the roast beast is perfectly golden brown, but behind the fake smiles reflected in your Spode Christmas china is a year full of anxiety, jealousy, greed, anger and guilt. The only reason there’s peace around the Christmas table is because everyone else knows you’re so obsessive compulsive that if they dare do anything to ruin the holiday it will come crashing down around them in a violent volcanic spew of pent-up rage and venom.
That’s not Christmas. Give it up. Embrace the chaos. That’s where the real Christmas lives.
I mean, isn’t that the point? That little baby in a manger represents peace that we can’t produce ourselves. You’re not going to find it if you try to do it on your own. Peace isn’t found in the holiday. It’s found in the baby, a miracle baby born in the middle of chaos. His name is Emmanuel, God With Us. In the middle of our mess, God is with us. Merry Christmas.
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