As we walk into Christmas week there’s a shift happening. The presents have been bought, the wrapping paper is out. Christmas parties have ensued. Kids are on break from school. There’s an electric excitement in the air each morning when my kids wake and move the hand on the advent calendar one day closer to Christmas!
Oh to be a child again! The nervous excitement and anticipation of the Christmas morning.
To be little and everything magical. Where life is simple and sweet and lights make everything shiny and beautiful.
As adults we lose this Christmas magic somewhere. We’re not always sure of when or how it happens, just aware that we wake up one year and Christmas doesn’t “feel” magical like it did when we were children. We’re all to aware of the sorrow, pain, mess, hardness and loss of this world; suddenly tinsel and lights can’t seem to make life beautiful just because.
If we sit in this, we risk losing our softness. I wonder if this “hardness” is what happened to the people in Bethlehem that night.
A town full of people from all corners huddled in for the census, and little did they know the most important event in human history was unfolding as they slept.
While they lay on soft beds, their hearts were hard to the gift of heaven.
One choice of rejection from inn-keepers and Bethlehem will forever be known as the town that had no room for Jesus. The Messiah born in straw and hay among a city full of people who claimed to be awaiting His arrival, yet missed Him.
All those people in Bethlehem, they had schedules, tasks and agendas to follow. They had work to be done, places to be, rest to be had.
So busy they missed the whisper of Heaven. We expect a shout, yet Heaven grants us a whisper. We must be wise and listen carefully.
So focused they lost sight.
I can’t blame them. It’s easy to do. The devil distracts and before I know it I’ve lost my bearings. I fall off course. I get so wrapped up in the tasks on my list, I fail to remember why I am even doing the tasks.
But the shepherds. Oh those shepherds, how I need to learn from them!
While in the middle of their work they stopped. They could have turned their backs, told the angels they couldn’t leave their flocks. {Then again I would likely listen to a host of angels!}
The shepherds sought Jesus. I guess that’s really the secret. The shepherds sought Jesus, and found Him!
It didn’t look like what everyone always expected, but in the stable, filled with stench, manure, mess. Yes, in the mess, the shepherds found the Messiah.
Just seek Jesus.
In the mess of Christmas. In the pain of the first year alone. In the struggle of economic hardship. In the loss of whatever you’re facing, just seek Jesus.
Because our Messiah, He’s not afraid to find us in our mess.
He’s not afraid of the dark and lonely places, in fact He’s all too familiar with them. He’s not afraid of being where no one wants to be.
Let’s be present this Christmas.
Let’s see His presence this Christmas.
Let’s be shepherds, not inn keepers.
Merriest of Christmas friends.
