Monday, December 11, 2017

A hidden sort of Christmas

I love getting ready for Christmas, the figuring out what decorations to put up, setting up my cooking schedule for festive dishes, picking out the best present I can for everybody. But this year health issues in my family mean I'm hardly doing anything for Christmas. In fact the only decoration I have up is a nativity scene that you can hardly see because there is no good location to put display it.

Of course I'm sad at the situation that is causing me to not be free to focus on the season, but I also just miss the fun, creativity, and beauty of doing an elaborate Christmas.

But I look at that nativity scene crammed in that little wedge between all the life things I need to deal with, and I think of that first Christmas. God put on a spectacular show at a historic location, announcing the coming of the Messiah. But He was also content for Him to be laid in a manger. And He certainly didn't need human effort to pretty things up before He could go to work.

God didn't and doesn't need the masses to look at Him, nor to get buy in from the powers that be, in order to change the world. The Christ who came at Christmas did concentrate on surface appearances or start at the top of human wish lists. He went right to the heart of the problem, to the breach between man and God, and made peace there. Only then did He send messengers to tell the whole world of His gift to them.

So I can have my Christmas hidden in chaos of issues, and know that God is not dependent on human circumstances, and He can be working powerfully wear things don't look neat and tidy to us.