It's A Wrap

We move so quickly on to the next thing.

Already the Christmas dinner feast has been fit into small plastic containers and classified as leftovers. The torn gift wrap has been wadded up, bagged, and tossed into the trash. The presents have been consolidated into tidy piles and taken to each person's room. Soon it will be time to take down decorations and tree and step determinedly into January. Let's be careful.

It would be easy to pack away Jesus with the holiday greens and glitter and barely give Him a thought until the sentimentality of next Christmas's carols invite us to pause and again consider the miracle of God in a manger, to prod us again to "let every heart prepare Him room." Lord knows how full we've let our calendars become. But Jesus didn't come to be with us only as a plastic addition to a 12" nativity scene that sits for a couple of weeks on our table and warms our hearts unthreateningly with His tiny silent presence. Although He doesn't force us to receive the Gift, He came not as the innocent focus of Silent Night, but the clearest Word the world will ever hear. If we will but listen. He came to be the pulse of our heart, the healer of our culture, the savior of our world, the Lord of our days. This week as we stop to consider new year's goals, let's not give Him the same meager status as our Christmas accessories or holiday sweaters, shuffled back into the closet.

Remember, this little One did not stay a meek and mild baby all tender and pink, but grew up to be a slayer of death and a giver of Life. The Light of the world.

"So let Me out," He says.


"And let Me in."



Photographs: Christmas Mess #2, by Shopping Diva; baby jesus in a box, by giddygirlie

'Tis the Season

The lights are glowing all around us now--dazzling displays in city squares, neighborhoods decked out with greenery and inflatable Santas, glittering malls swirling with holiday music to tantalize the crowds to celebrate with more and more, and even churches putting on gala events. Glitz is nearly everywhere. People will be scurrying around in this last week like the mice that dance with sugarplum fairies as we try to get our purchases made and lists completed. It is often a dizzying scene.



It makes it all the more challenging to remember the simple beginnings of the holiday. One tiny baby arriving in the night. Yes, God used lights too--of a wattage we could only dream of...a sky full of glorious angels telling us that the Light of the World had arrived. Talk about a spectacle. We've spun it into a production to be sure, but maybe it's because somewhere inside we know that even if we express it in a skewed and materialistic way, it is true that this event needs our attention, our energy, our time. Hopefully we won't miss the meaning while engaged in the madness.



Try to wrap your mind around the idea that the God who created the heavens and the earth would choose to inhabit the flesh He conceived, now Himself being conceived in the womb of a Jewish girl so He could come to set us free. Free. Now there is a word we don't here much in the days of December. Sure, there are bargains out there, but they are ones that often dig us deeper in debt.





He didn't come into the perfectly positioned scene we usually create in our calm-faced nativity sets....





He came into the chaos of a busy city where there wasn't even room for His mother to have a simple bed in which to give birth. He came to the cackles and noisy bleats where the animals were kept. He came right into the gritty reality of those who were over-tired and over-taxed. He came to us.


This year, as we are surrounded by the twinkling Christmas lights that pierce the darkness of winter nights, maybe we can remember the One whose presence pierces the darkness of our own hearts and souls and brings light to the very raw and earthy place where we need it most.


He never demands our attention or respect. He won't pencil Himself onto our holiday list. But perhaps we could stop for a few minutes to consider again the events that began this thing we call Christmas. It would be a sad (though common) thing to be caught up in the flurry for weeks and miss the point of it all.




Photographs: 200,000 Christmas lights, by terren in Virginia; Christmas Lights, by mandj98; B&W baby.JPG, by NataPics; A Rude Awakening, by "clarity"

House of Bread

Bethlehem...

The word means "House of Bread."

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry. He who believes in me will never need a drink."

Luke 2:16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

A manger is a place to put the food for the ones who would come and eat. Consider the gift of His promise of provision and nourishment for these days. Pause for part of the hectic holiday season and consider what is available to you.

Photograph: Living Christmas Crib Scene 093F, by krisdecurtis

Mary's Gift For Us All

I am sitting here this morning in the 5am quiet, amazed by the promise we have of God with us. This Emmanuel baby who was deposited into Mary's womb by the breath of God is the very reason I can be sure that it is possible for His Spirit to live in me as I open myself to His presence. His word made it so in Mary; His Word was what--no, Who--came to us through her willingness to say yes. And His Word is dwelling in me, able to guide and direct my words and my actions as I listen to Him quietly guiding me today.

This morning I am sitting here, a cup of coffee next to me, a glowing computer screen in my face, my thoughts a mix of the wonder of the season and the responsibilities of the day ahead. There will be my job at school, dinner with John and the kids at Mom's tonight, much list-making and house tidying in any moments in between. There are kids to rustle out of bed in a while, breakfast to get into them, bookbags to gather, a husband to kiss good-bye, and "miles to go before I sleep." These December days are full ones and for the most part quite typical. And yet right now I am aware that there is a great big picture of which my tiny life is a part. I am stern with my heart right now, challenging it to remember the wonder of it as I go on through my day instead of clicking off that reality when I sign off the computer and face a busy house. It is because of the big picture that the rest is meaningful and worth all I can offer--or abandon in it. The great Light, living in each of us right here, right now, for this day is an astonishing thing.

God with us. Emmanuel. A Christmas miracle fleshed out in millions of us right now in this December day. It will be a miracle if we loosen our grip on our lives and take a chance on Him today. Emmanuel. God with us.

His feet touched the planet. Be ready for Him to intersect with you in tangible ways today. That is why He came. That is why He's here.

Photographs: ready yourself, by Moon Rhythm; Kiki and the candle, by Ctd 2005