Slow Down and Smell the Pine

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog.  Christmas is coming and things have been crazy! We have a Cantata and Christmas Eve service to plan at church, the tree, presents, and decorations at home.  Don't forget to bake cookies for the cookie exchange.  In the midst of that the boys have plays and concerts at school.  It is enough to make your head spin.

So, how come we celebrate the coming of peace on earth by getting crazy?  Shouldn't Christmas bring calm and peace?  Shouldn't we take time to sit and quietly contemplate the lights and the tree and what they represent?

Well, maybe we should consider what the first Christmas was like.  Caesar decided to have a census so everyone had to travel to the home of their ancestors.  Joseph had to take a very pregnant, teenage Mary cross country on a donkey.  Why?  So that they could be taxed properly!  (So don't complain about sitting on your chair having to do your taxes online!  You don't have to travel for miles in the cold via donkey to get your tax info.)

When they got to Bethlehem it was NOT peaceful.  The town was completely packed with people who were probably grumpy about having to travel to be taxed, too.  On the plus side, since most of them came from that town, there was probably a lot of family reunion stuff going on.  Any of you who have a big family reunion know that it is fun, but peaceful doesn't always describe it.  OK, sitting on the porch by the fire at Darlene's is peaceful as long as its not too cold, but Amy and her water balloons, not so much!

So baby Jesus was born in a manger to exhausted parents.  Oh, and the "no crying he makes" is not from the Bible.  God came down to be human for us, to experience what it is to be human.  Jesus cried and needed diapers changed.  Any of you who are parents know that having a new baby is anything but peaceful.

So if we are not celebrating peace, what are we celebrating?  To quote C3PO from the Star Wars Christmas album (because it is ohhh so theologically correct...)  "We have a day when love came to stay."  Love came down at Christmas. 

Christmas is the day that "For God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son" happened.  The thought that an all powerful and all knowing God would love us enough to come down and be one of us is mind blowing.  God loved us enough to want to know what it is like to be us.  God loved us enough to suffer and die to pay for our sins.  That should make us want to turn into one giant flash mob singing "Joy to the World."

I would love to have a peaceful Christmas, but I will settle for a joyful Christmas full of love and loved ones.  Maybe once I retire we can have a peaceful Christmas... except that we might have grandchildren to spoil...

Whatever your situation I wish you love and joy this Christmas, and to those who need it most - peace!