Making Room for Baby Jesus in the Hot Mess
The house just isn’t clean enough to decorate. I need a few more days to get things organized. Where are we going to fit the Christmas tree this year? I don’t want to rearrange the furniture. I haven’t made Christmas cookies yet. It doesn’t really FEEL like Christmas.
And yet... we decorated. We moved the chair over to accommodate the Christmas tree. We baked and ate a whole batch of cookies. The rest of the house stayed messy. It didn’t really FEEL like Christmas...but it was fun to remember the stories behind each ornament and be together as a family despite it being far later into the night than we expected to be up decorating a tree.
There are a few things going on in the scenarios above that have provided insight into my soul.
The first thing: When did I reduce Christmas to a feeling? When I make Christmas about how I feel, I make Christmas all about me. Christmas is far more than my feelings. Christmas is far more than a warm fuzzy feeling. Christmas is the celebration of a monumental event that opened up Heaven to all people. Christmas is the celebration of the event in which Jesus left his rightful and perfect place in Heaven and clothed himself with a human body in order to live on this messy side of Heaven. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Son of God who would, 33 years later, cloth himself with the sin of humankind and give up his life and die to pay the price that our sin costs. He would RISE again, thus conquering death, and forever making a way for us to be adopted into the family of God. While this may stir up feelings, Christmas is not to be reduced to a feeling.
The second thing: When I invited Jesus into my life...He didn’t enter a perfectly 'pinterested' life...He entered a hot mess. Decorating for Christmas, while my house remained in a state of chaos and mess, was a very tangible reminder that Jesus lives amongst the mess in our hearts and lives. We might have to move some stuff around (and throw some stuff out) to make room. He helps us clean up. He inspires us to redecorate. He even sits down in the mess with us and helps us pick through what needs to stay and what needs to go. My house…{my life}....can be messy and yet I can still put up the tree and lights and decorations. And when we turn off all the lights except for the Christmas tree lights, and the room is filled with the soft glow of twinkling lights, the mess fades. It will be worked on the next day but for now, it is enough to rest in the Light and the Peace of knowing Emmanuel--God with us.
Good reminders. Needed reminders.
Christmas isn’t a feeling. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Savior who desires to enter our hot mess and fill it with beautiful light and peace.
