Extra-Ordinary Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Or not. Sometimes the hype and the anticipation of the season makes the hardness of it that much harder too. There are so many things I love about this time of year- lights, music, finding gifts for those I love, the wonder of the story of the birth of Christ. My Savior. God becoming flesh.

But the clash of the disappointing, frustrating and overwhelming parts of this season often overshadow. The crowds, lines, spending and more spending, extended family drama, unmet expectations, overcrowded schedules or the feelings of loneliness as everyone hustles about and you are not.

I find myself living in tension this season. Getting up early to read my Advent devotion, only to be interrupted by two little children who can’t seem to share the ENTIRE couch. And it’s not even 6am. Appliances breaking just in time to host family at Christmas. Parking lots, long lines and working hard to stay on the budget while shopping for gifts for under the tree.  Work parties, school parties, church gatherings. Or lonely days while others seem to be off to holiday fun and I am doing the same tasks I did in November and will do in April; laundry, cleaning, bills and groceries.

And I wonder about that little town of Bethlehem. So small and ordinary. With nothing to make the world take notice. Worn out travelers, merchants, animals, families, shepherds, carpenters, mamas and daddies. Going about their tasks, their everyday normal when SPLENDOR broke through. Not loud or demanding. Not with glitter and fanfare. But a tired, traveled and worn young girl, her new husband, a stable, and the SON of God.

 

Can you imagine? Can you relate?

Something extra-ordinary from the ordinary. A small town, a young girl, a silent night.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

I have to admit I’m having to reset my mind more than I hoped for this season. I have to check my heart and realign it more times than I’d like. The real truth my heart needs this year more than any other is that Jesus entered the everyday. The ordinary. The good news was spoken (by angels no less) to the least, the hard working, the smelly shepherds working the fields. The Messiah came to a stable, a leftover place, a not prepared space for this new born King. God came. 

And in a way nothing changed. And yet EVERYTHING changed.

Mary was still a young, tired, worn out traveler with a new husband and a baby to care for. The shepherds went back to their fields. The next morning, as the little town of Bethlehem awoke, merchants, and mamas and daddies all did what they always did. 

Nothing was different- but everything was.

I don’t know what today looks like in your heart. If you are merry and bright or if the weight of the season, of loved ones lost, or simply the demands of the Christmas countdown are closing in. Can you and I take a minute to close our eyes and picture that moment when LOVE came in the form of a baby? It was so ordinary. And so extraordinary! May you seek a settling of your heart today. To know that God is near in the everyday moments. 

And even though it’s just another day, with more things to do than time to do it. Something is different. Everything changed. God came near at Christmas.