It’s December, so let’s assess our present predicament.
Decorations…have you started? Gifts purchased? (What to get people who have everything?) Oh yeah, wrapping too?
Do you know what you’re wearing to that Christmas party? What about the dish you’re supposed to bring?
Are you hyperventilating yet? WHEW!
December is one of my favorite times of the year! We open our home for SO MANY joy-filled evenings, starting with a special meal and time connecting with the widows of our church. (We call them “Survivors” because they are the strongest women I know!)
Our front door revolves from that moment forward, throughout this festive season. (Makes me tired just to write it!)
If it’s the most wonderful time of the year, why is it that we need reminders of that daily?!
And, why is it that we think everything must be perfect…seamless…so tidy?
The truth is, nothing about that first Christmas even hinted at such.
The stables? Nasty!
The feeding trough with lamb’s drool dribbling down the sides? Disgusting…especially for a newborn!
Actually, no person that first Christmas could have felt like they had their act together. Joseph surely suffered humiliation as his labor-ridden wife agonized through her last pushes in that putrid straw. It’s the last place they imagined such a significant birth unfolding.
Mary’s contractions with no epidural? Y’ALL!
The night air in that region chills grown men. Surely it shivered an infant.
Hear me! While everything surely felt so wrong, all of it ultimately proved so right!
This couple landed exactly where God intended. Every imperfection proved perfect!
It leaves me wondering about all the messiness amid our Christmas planning. Are we focused on fixing the imperfections? Or can we trust God to make what feels so inferior become just right?
Sometimes, as our best-laid ideas go up in smoke, we land exactly where God designed all along. The imperfections become so breathtakingly perfect!
What if we looked upon this hectic season and chose to embrace the flaws and deficiencies? What if we decided to view the situations that FEEL so wrong as situations God is perfectly redeeming?
Maybe you stress over adult children that can’t get along. Perhaps your gifts aren’t as “grand” as the other grandparents. Maybe what you have to offer seems inadequate on every level.
When it comes to Christmas, all is not as it seems. It is more, so very much more!
“CHRISTmas cannot be bought. CHRISTmas cannot be created. CHRISTmas cannot be made by hand, lit up, set out, dreamed up. CHRISTmas can only be found” . . . in Jesus. (Ann Voskamp)
So, let’s not scale back CHRISTmas. Let’s scale up WHO CHRISTmas is all about!
And, when we do, Christmas will become the most imperfectly perfect celebration you’ve ever experienced!
Think about it. “What religion ever had a god that wanted such intimacy WITH us that He came with such vulnerability TO us? What God ever came so tender we could touch Him? So fragile that we could break Him? So vulnerable that His bare, beating heart could be hurt? Only the One who loves us to death!” (Voskamp)
I don’t know what might be feeling upside down for you this season, but I do know this – no matter what, with HIM, everything can be just right! For comments or prayer, please contact Dr. Lanier at HopeCommunityChurch.tv.
